The Hiraga Twins
by foxluvur64
Summary: Simply put: Twins AU. Saito has a twin sister who has an innate and understandable pessimistic view of the world with an impressive level of sarcasm. But aside from that, she was just another teenager with a normal high school life, just like her twin Saito. Or was she? The rest of the sum is inside. ADVANCE NOTICE: THIS IS NOT AN INCEST STORY! THANK YOU!
1. Chapter 1-Where My Backpack?

**Familiar of Zero: The Hiraga Twins**

 _ **HELLOO~ PEOPLE~! Foxluvur64 here!**_

 _ **For those of you familiar (hehehe- "familiar") with my somehow-not-finished Psycho Pass work of "A Prideful Wolf Becomes A Disobedient Hunting Dog", I will tell you here and now: that story is ON-HOLD! Reason? Un-motivation and distractions that lead to said un-motivation. Meaning that I do NOT have a chapter currently to post for that story to place the "on-hold" note. Thank you.**_

 _ **Now BEFORE we get to the story, please read (or don't, your choice) the full summary below, since you guys probably got the " -format-then-the-note-saying-the-full-summary-is-inside" thing. so here:**_

 _ **Simply put: Twins AU**_

 _ **Saito has an older twin sister named Atsuko Hiraga, who, aside from their family trait of carefree habit, is the slight opposite from himself.**_

 _ **She's got an impressive level of sarcasm with an innate and understandable pessimistic view of the world. But aside from that, she was just another teenager with a normal high school life, just like her twin Saito. Or was she?**_

 _ **Follow the twins, especially Atsuko, as they are summoned to Louise's world. Become the spectators and audiences as they go about their new lives, seeking a way home, blossoming romance, and perhaps the best part in a story, the most gut-wrenching secret spilling. Family secrets that Atsuko knows about, but wasn't supposed to, from their world. Secrets that Saito know nothing about.**_

 _ **ADVANCE NOTICE: THIS IS NOT AN INCEST STORY! THANK YOU! Also it's a yuri OCxCANON. Rated M for reasons... a teenager's Max-from-CampCamp-like potty-mouth. Also using both anime and manga as my sources.**_

 _ **With that note, Enjoy the story!**_

* * *

 **Chapter One- Where's My Backpack?**

 **First P.O.V.**

' _Damn, Saito really knows how to complain._ '

That was my only constant thought as I walked with my twin brother, Saito, toward the grocer from cram school. Well, Saito's the one who went to cram school while I had gone earlier that morning to summer school. I had gone to go pick him up so that he could help me with the groceries for tonight's dinner. If you gave him the most feminine job or chore, big or small, he'll rack up a storm complaining! Honestly, it's kinda funny when he gets like that. What's funnier about both of our lives is the fact that no one can tell we're siblings, even worse that we're twins. Fraternal twins obviously, not identical. Between me and him, I was the first born by at least half an hour.

Saito took on most of dad's visage of average build while attaining mom's black hair color, albeit messy. I, on the other hand, had taken on our mom's lean bodied appearance and the same long hair, which was tied in a low tail, however I got dad's caramel brown hair color. The only thing we share as siblings are our blue eyes, mines being slightly darker, we received from our late gramps. He wore a loose, blue, long-sleeved jacket which had a raised collar over his white, short-sleeved tee, a pair of black jeans and his favorite blue and white sneakers. I had gone with a pinkish brown collared jacket over my black short-sleeve with a pair of steel grey-blue ripped jeans and my favorite pair of black and white ankle-high converse.

On our walk to the grocer, my younger twin said the same complaint about school, summer, and cram or the sixty-eighthꟷ or is it the seventy-second?ꟷ time that day.

"Fuaaaa— Once school's out, it's straight to cram school." Is what my dark haired little brother had said in a tired tone. And here comes the most famous almost-everyday-complaint. "Aren't you sick of the same, boring, day-in day-out routine of high school life, Atsuko? 'Cuz I know as hell I am!"

All I did was chuckle. "Saito, this is just getting us ready for _college_ life. Adult life is gonna be a _whole lot_ worse."

"I know that, Sis!" He whined, making a… pouting(?) face. "It's just that, I only _wish_ something exciting and surprising would happen." I gently shook my head at my idiot brother's wish before he began to ask me about his laptop. "Hey, Sis, did you go ask how much it would cost for my laptop's repair? I have a report coming up."

I nodded as I looked at the grocery list that I had on my phone. "Yeah. I went to the shop after I got out of school this morning. The employee there said it would cost around 8,500 yen to fix it up." Then with half-lidded eyes, I glanced at Saito. "I recommend you get a part time job to pay for whatever that incoming bill and I'll see what I can do for the rest of it." Saito sighed as he nodded, agreeing before he looked up, only to come to a halt. He had placed a hand on my shoulder, making me stop and look up at him. I gave him a questioning look. "What's wroꟷ?"

"Look over there."

I raised a brow at him before I looked at the direction ahead of us and saw what he saw. What we saw had sort of transparent lines, glowing a soft greenish-blue. The fist circular layer enclosed some sort of weird inscription which surrounded a hollow pentagon that held a five-point star. "What- what is that?"

"It- it looks like some sort of weird gateway." Saito said softly, thinking aloud. While he was inspecting it, I placed my phone my jacket's inside pocket as I noticed how nobody else around us were looking at us, much less seeing what we saw. "Hey, Saito, look. No one is seeing thiꟷ" I had stopped myself in almost mid-sentence as I looked back at my twin, immediately caught sight of my brother _touching_ the damn thing!

"Hey, look, Atsuko! How 'bout we take a look inside?" He smiled back at me, as I reached for his shoulder, hoping to hold him back.

"You dumbass, wait! We don't know what it is!"

Saito's smile turned into a mischievous grin. "Well, we won't know 'til we find out, huh?"

He grasped onto my arm, dragging me in with him, me closing my eyes as we passed through… whatever that thing was. When I felt nothing happening, I opened my eyes and saw nothing but dark. Saito had already let go of my arm.

"Jeez, it's pitch black and there's nothing in here," the idiot began complaining. "How boring." I rolled my eyes at his disappointed antics. _'And this boy is my brother…'_ I began walking back towards the opening, giving my little brother a look slightly irritated. "C'mon, Saito. We took a peek now let's go back. We still haveꟷ" Just before I finished that sentence, I noted that the light from the opening had begun to vanish. "Eh? Saito!"

He looked back. "Crap! The gateway's disappearing!"

Slightly frightened, I stepped backwards until I bumped into my brother. "Y-You've got to be joking!"

"What the hell do we do now!?"

While the dark began to shift to light, which gave off a warm, fuzzy feeling, I gave him what was essentially a death glare as I growled out my response. "I don't know! You're the smartass that got into this mess! You figure it out!"

All Saito did was hum as we began to drift off into the warm feeling. "Hmm… we'll probably find a way out somewhere…"

"…I'mma hit you when we get out of here…"

* * *

 **General P.O.V.**

 _Else where_

Just out of reach of the majestic mountain range, on the outskirts of a luscious forest stood a grand academy building surrounded by a wall structured as a pentagon. It was a sunny day with soft clouds here and there floating about, students were walking to and from classes as a couple of wyverns flew over the academy. Two girls can be seen walking through one of the open areas as they talked.

The girl with long hair spoke. "Hey! Today is the second-year students' initiation ritual, isn't it?"

"Yeah," replied the short haired girl, giving a closed eyed smile. "The Springtime Familiar Summoning." The former girl continued to talk as we get a view of a couple of students sitting by a fountain. "I wonder what kind of Familiars everyone will summon."

We now see a small group of students walking down a hall. "Well, they'll mostly be things like cats, mice, or owls." The friend had answered. "If possible a Basilisk or Bugbear would be nice."

The other girl nodded, agreeing with her friend. "But everyone knows that Dragons or Griffons are by far the best!"

We get a view of two other girls in a potions class then several more students in another class taking notes. "You mean that dropout from the Valliere family?"

A view of the sky and tree tops. "So, it's her, huh?"

"'The Zero'…"

""Louise the Zero"!"

In a clearing near the forest, just outside the academy walls, stood a large class of second year students, all having already summoned their Familiars. Except for two students, one already stepping up was a girl with light blue eyes and long blonde hair styled into spiraled drills, tied back with a red medium-sized bow. She wore the school's standard girls' uniform which consisted of a white, long-sleeved dress shirt, a black skirt along with a pair of dark stockings, and a black cloak covering her. She is now nearly done with her summoning.

"…Heed my summoning," she spoke with her arms raised, wand in hand, as a pentagram circle glowing under her giving off steam. "And bring forth my Familiar!" And with a small poof, a tiny frog appeared. It was light orange with deep green spots, a paled underbelly, and emerald green eyes.

Jumping onto its master's hands, the class's professor, a bi-spectacle, balding man, praised his student. "Very good, Miss Montmorency. So, your affinity is of the water element."

"Yes." Was Montmorency's only reply. The teacher then called forth the last student. "And nest, the final person is…Louise! Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere!"

The student named Louise was a petite stature girl of pale peach-ish skin with loose, long, wavy pink hair, pink eyes, and wore the girls uniform with black thigh-high socks. With wand in hand and cloak gently flowing, Louise walked, if not marched, forward as she answered the professor. "Yes!"

As the girl took her place, she hears her classmates begin to whisper about her.

"I wonder if she can manage?"

"I'm curious on seeing what she'll summon…"

"She'll probably just screw up again."

Blocking out their voices, Louise gulped then breathed, steadying her heart. Raising her wand, she began the spell, a glowing pentagram circle appearing under her feet as unseen wind caused her skirt and cloak to rise a bit. Her voice clear and strong as she spoke.

" _My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere._

 _Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers,_

 _Heed my Summoning,_

 _And bring forth…_

 _My Familiar!_ "

With a zap and a boom, smoke clouding up all their vision, none could see what was summon. _However_ , what they lacked in sight, they made up with hearing, and what they all heard didn't sound like and animal or beast. Nor was it alone. In fact, they sounded… _human_.

A boy and a girl.

Now the smoke has cleared and it was confirmed to all that their assumptions were correct; they were in fact human boy and girl. The sitting boy had lightly tanned skin and messy black hair, his eyes were closed shut as he rubbed the back of his head. His clothes were slightly weird; he wore a loose, closed coat that was blue and white with a raised collar, a pair of black trousers, and a pair of blue and white shoes.

The girl sitting next to him also had the same lightly tanned skin, but had long chocolate brown hair, tied in a low tail; her eyes, unlike the boy, were _not_ closed so their slightly dark blue coloring could be seen and was giving the dark-haired teen a glare. Her clothes were also a bit strange, especially since she is wearing a pair of grey, slightly _ripped trousers_ instead of a skirt or dress. She too wore a coat similar in design to the boy's except it was not closed, or loose, and it was a pinkish brown color; underneath the coat she had on a black blouse with her shoes being black and white.

The girl raised a fist and quickly brought it down on the boy's head with a good _SMACK_ , the sound nearly reverberating across the field. The boy howled in pain before speaking in a… strange language…

* * *

 **First P.O.V.**

Giving Saito a good smack to the head, he howled like the little, low-pain tolerance bitch he is.

"OW!" He yowled, hands covering the spot I had just hit, his own blue eyes open, glaring at me. "What the FUCK, Atsuko!? My head's already pounding as it is!"

I simply glared back at him, not intending to back down as I nearly yelled at him. "Well, _MAYBE_ we would be in this mess if it weren't for your stupid-self!"

Saito glared harder my way as he too yelled at me. "Oh yeah!? Then why didn't you _STOP_ me!? You are the older sister, moron!"

"Idiot!"

"Dumbass!"

"Ass-hat!"

"Bitch!"

"If I'm a 'bitch', then you're a _mutt_ in heat!"

"I 'ottaꟷ!"

" _Hey you two!_ "

The both of us were already in each other's faces' as we were yelling, forgetting that we were in front of a… peculiar audience. Saito and I turned our heads to look at them and I noticed that they were all just kids- No, not brats, teenagers- looking about 15? Maybe 16 years old. They wore simple enough uniforms; the boys had on white dress shirts, black slacks, black cloaks, and pairs of black or brown shoes while the girls the same dress shirts, black skirts, same cloaks, dark colored stockings or thigh highs, and pairs of black or brown shoes. On closer inspection, they all have either a gold or brass colored pendent that had a five-point star etched into them, holding their capes on.

' _Are we at a school?'_

Me always paying attention to things, I saw that none of the other students(?) were stepping anywhere near us. All except one, a petite pink-haired girl. Wearing the girls uniform, her face had an expressive look of discontent, anger, and a bit of confusion. She started to call out to us again.

" _Who are the both of you?_ "

 _Where- where is this place?_ Was apparently my thought at the moment as I actually looked around at the location instead of the people, Saito doing the same thing. Noticing our lack of response, the pinkette sent, what I assume was, two more questions.

" _Neither of you understand our language? Where are you from, peasants?_ "

' _English? Or is it Latin? No, wait, it isn't… Anyway~'_

As a red-head bombshell walked forward with a mocking smirk plastered on her face as she began to poke fun(?) at the smaller girl. By the way, how the FUCK does she have tits that are the size of her head!? She's supposed to be a teenager, right? Just seeing them kinda makes me conscious about my own, which by the by are a little below average sized.

" _Ha! Nothing less from someone who puts up a huge front! To think you would summon up, not only one, but_ _ **two**_ _peasants!_ "

The petite girl before us twitched in response to the uproarious laughter of her, presumably, classmates. One by one, comments arose directed towards her(?).

" _What are those~~?_ "

" _They're a pair of commoners!_ "

" _You summoned common humans!?_ "

" _As expected of "Louise the Zero"!_ "

" _A result that meets everyone's expectations!_ "

Okay, from my experience with people of _below_ average height, it's never a good idea to mess with them. Never know how short of a fuse they got. And, lo and behold, I believe her own fuse was passed "finished", 'cuz she raged with embarrassment as she pointed a finger at us.

" _These things couldn't possibly be my Familiars!_ " She practically yelled as her face flushed heavily. " _This is a mistake! I just messed up a little!_ "

I felt irked for some reason, the same seemed to be for Saito. The red bombshell spoke again, sighing as she shrugged, with a petite pale-blue haired spectacled girl popping from behind, nodding. _Where the hell she come from!?_

"" _Just a mistake", huh? But aren't you always like that, Louise…?_ "

" _Shut your mouth!_ " The pinkette had growled out, a small vein popping on her face. " _I'll fix this! I'll just summon another_ _ **one**_ _!_ "

Me and my twin glanced at each other with questioning gazes, me urging him to _NOT_ poke the beast, so to speak, which, he did. Dumbass. "Hey, wait…!" The pinkette just yelled at him. " _SHUT UP!_ " She then turned to a balding, spectacled man, whom I assume is the teacher of this class. By the way, I actually did not notice him there, considering he is standing pretty close to us. The man had just finished calming down the class as the pinkette spoke to him.

" _Miss Valliere._ "

" _Mister Colbert!_ "

" _This ritual is a sacred one that decides the mage's entire life._ " The man said, seemingly explaining. " _And to try a second time is considered a blasphemy against the ritual itself!_ " The petite girl was trying to interrupt in a sort of feeble manner." _Besides, you should consider yourself a bit lucky, especially since you summoned not one, but two Familiars. Nevertheless, you have called them to service, therefore this boy and this girl shall be your Familiars. Please, just continue with the ritual._ "

The pink hair student gave a weak answer. " _…Yes, sir._ "

I just realized that I might need to get my eyes checked out because I did not see Saito crawling away, trying to escape, obviously leaving me behind. _That little shit…!_ He didn't get far when the pinkette caught him by his hoodie, slightly choking him in the process. And me being the oh-so-marvelous older sister, I decided best to leave him to his own demise. Saito sat on his ass before crawling back a bit, away from the small girl and towards me, while the other kids started wolf-calling. "What is it!? Atsuko, what going on!?"

"Hell, if I know."

The girl walked up to us, with us still on our asses- well, Saito's the one on his ass, I'm on my knees- and started to say something to us with an air of breaking indifference. " _Normally, a noble would never do this with either a peasant boy, or girl for that matter!_ " Oh, dear, do I detect a hint of Bitch coming on? " _You two better be thankful._ "

She quickly put our heads next to each other before tapping her wand- Oh, God, is this Harry Potter? Are we in Harry Potter? – and spoke.

" _My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere._

 _Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers,_

 _Grant your blessings upon these creatures_

 _And bind them as my Familiars…_ "

Done talking over whatever else, the girl started to lean toward my brother with her hands hold his head softly, freaking him out… a bit. "What are you doing!? Stay back!" Wow, I tend to forget how amusing it is to watch Saito squirm. With a finger just above his lips, the pinkette essentially hushed him. " _Be quiet! And stay still…_ "

Saito had turned his head a bit as he whispered to me, glancing as he did so. "This is kinda… scary, Sis…" I simply smirked then I thought. _Ah! This is his first kiss, right? Better not say anything…_

" _Damn it!_ " She turned his head right back towards her. " _Just keep still!_ "

With her pink eyes closed and my brother's blue eyes wide open, blushes decorating their cheeks, the girl took Saito's first kiss. _Damn, lil' Bro. You go get 'em._ With my brother in his daze, the pinkette turned to me, taking my face in her hands- Wait- Hold up! What's going on?

"Wait- what are youꟷ!" I have not even finished when I felt her lips on mine, my eyes wide and an even darker blush, not only coated, but painted my face. Even as my face and ears got warmer, and warmer by the second, I couldn't help but notice how soft her lips felt. Kinda like velveteen fabric. It felt… nice… really, really…niceꟷ Wait, huh? As she stood, removing herself from my personal space, the teacher walked up to us. " _It seems Contract Servant has ended peacefully._ "

My brother, being the dunce, he is, started to demand an explanation despite the fact that we can't understand them and they can't understand us. "Hey! What did that thing right now mean!?" Hoping to get some sense into him, I smacked him lightly upside his head. "Ya dumbass! They can't understand us. What's the point asking them anything right now!?" And we were back to calling each other vulgar names, once again completely forgetting that we still have an audience.

"Cunt!"

"Numb-nuts!"

"Fuckhead!"

"Toxic waste of space!"

"Dick breath!"

"Ass-fuck!"

"Bastard!"

"We have the _same_ fucking daꟷ!"

My eyes widened as my body began to heat up, steam rolling off my skin and clothes. I gasped as I felt the heat accumulate more on the back of my right hand until it became searing hot pain, my eyes shut closed. Doubling forward, my forehead nearly hit the grassy ground as I clenched my right hand, holding it to my chest with the other. My jaws were clenched as I tried to not cry out, and from what I could hear, Saito was going through the same thing.

"My body's… getting hot… what is this!?"

I tried sitting up, still clutching my hand, as I took a peak at Saito as he was clutching his left hand, gasping in pain. I then sent a glare at the petite pinkette and her teacher as I, essentially, hiss at them, forgetting that they cannot understand me. "What the fuck did you do to us!?"

I had barely gotten that sentence out before the pain intensified at my hand as I bent my head, tears appearing at the corners of my eyes, all the while the girl and Prof. Four-Eyes where saying something. When the pain washed away, I heard a thud on the grass next to me. Turning to look, I was Saito on his back, knocked out. Still on my knees, I hurried over to my twin and set to check for his pulse. Feeling that it was still strong, I looked over to the pink haired girl as I narrowed my dark eyes with my lips becoming a thin line. _This bitch…_

 **MAGICAL TIME SKIP**

At first, I had intended to carry Saito, but then a blonde pretty boy had just started waving a red rose and my idiot brother's body started to float. I know, I should have been surprised or at least shocked, but honestly, I wasn't. Instead I was just annoyed.

Anyway, now I'm just sitting on a pile of hay with my idiot brother's body laid out on his own pile, unconscious, with the sky already turning dark. We were lead to the petite girl's dorm room; the room itself was modest enough with a single canopy-bed, a wardrobe, powder table with a mirror, a bookcase next to it, and a small center table with two chairs. In terms of hotel rooms, this room would be somewhere in between the expensive and the non-expensive pricings.

During the whole earlier ordeal, I had almost completely forgotten that I still had my cellphone in my jacket's inside pockets, so now I was just looking through all the apps, checking which are still working and which aren't especially since there isn't any service here. _Damn. I won't be able to download any good songs, much less any books._ Was my thought as I grumbled, one of my brows twitched as my lips formed a small scowl. Hearing the room's door open and shut, I quickly slid my phone back into my pocket, hidden from the annoying pinkette's sight. She looks at me then at Saito and spoke quietly. " _He hasn't woken up yet?_ "

I may not understand whatever gibberish she is saying, but with the look of annoyance clear on her face, even I could tell that she was asking if the idiot hasn't woken up yet. So, in response, I had given her a questioning look before shaking my head. She sighed before walking towards my brother and stood with her arms crossed. As for me, I simply gave a glance between the two before looking down at the floor and closing my eyes. _Might as well get some sleep. Don't know when these two will cause trouble._

I didn't even get to close my eyes for _ten_ seconds when Saito sat up with a jolt, which surprised me, also causing me to snap my eyes open. With irritation written all over my face, I sent a sideways glare in the idiot's direction. The corner of my lips twitched as I saw him look around our surroundings, an obvious question appearing in his eyes: _What was that dream just now?_ I was about to say something regarding his quiet question, but the bitchy-pinkette had beat me to it. " _So, you've finally woken up._ "

Since Saito is usually an easily scared, pussy-foot, my twin _UWAAH_ -ed as he jumped on his ass a bit, and then said what I personally think is the _stupidest_ one-liner of affirmation. "It wasn't a dream!"

Sending one last glare at the idiot before closing my eyes, I spoke up, snapping at him a bit, as I rested my head against the wall. "No! It _isn't_ a dream, ya dumbass." After which, I was certain that he had made a face at me, but I no longer cared as I was tired of this day. I tried to block out most of their annoyingly loud "gibberish" conversation- keyword _TRIED_ \- it was impossible right from the beginning. "Where in the world have we been taken away to?!"

 _Numb-nuts,_ I cracked open an eye just briefly, giving a glance at the poor, mindless idiot. _You're the one who made us walk into that portal._

"Take us home," yelled my brother as he waved his hands frantically. "If you don't take us back…!"

 _Oh. He stopped talking. Good._ Is what I had thought, obviously thinking that there was _nothing WRONG_ going on. Oh, how mistaken I was. The pinkette had said something after Saito had gone silent, but I paid no attention and kept my eyes closed. But then Saito spoke loudly although muffled, which made me open my eyes a bit. "What is this!?"

And, low and behold, I see my little brother rubbing his _face_ in the pinkette's uniforꟷ Wait! When did she undress!?

* * *

 **GENERAL P.O.V**

Atsuko's expression was of surprise and confusion, a nearly perfect combination of those two emotions, as to what the very action Saito was doing at the moment: muffling his face into Louise's used uniform shirt and skirt. As well as the fact that Louise had stripped to merely her underclothing, without Atsuko's notice. Which caused the brunette to squeak out in her effort to yell as she realized that there was a pair of stockings thrown onto her lap. "What the _fuck_ is going on!?"

With her question then ignored, Louise promptly responded to the confusion of her Familiars. " _You don't even understand your Master's orders? If they can't understand an order, then they're no better than a dog and cat._ "

Saito continued to rub his face with the used uniform as if hoping, and not hoping, something to happen. What would that something be? One something in the gutter for Saito Hiraga! "Hey, why are you trying to seduce me!?"

"I don't think she's trying to seduce ANYONE, Saito! And in the first place, who the _hell_ are you!?" Atsuko had first yelled out at Saito before turning to the pinkette in question. Said pinkette was now covering her ears as if trying to block out the voices of her Familiars while closing her eyes shut. " _Oh, be quiet both of you! All you do is chirp!"_

Then as if realizing something, Louise snapped open her pink eyes as she softly slammed a fist into her palm, mumbling slightly. " _Right. Silencing magic. I learned it last year!_ " As she reached for her wand, Saito kept on saying incoherent things such as ' _Must be a bad dream!'_ and _'Wake me up!'_ and _'Get me back on the net!'_ while Atsuko was already standing behind her little brother as she simply scowled deeply with a fist raised, ready to hit the poor fool on the head… again. Louise then closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to remember the correct spell for the outcome she desired. " _Let's see… Ansur ver ang_ ," Having remembered the words for the spell, Louise raised her wand before pointing it directly at the siblings, once again snapping her eyes open, this time with more determination, as she casted the complete invocation. " _Notice the tracks and answer my request!_ "

The incantation, however, concluded with a boom and an explosion of smoke which ended up with Saito and Atsuko blasted onto their back and ass, respectively. Although Saito and Atsuko were both dirtied with the explosion's soot, the little brother had taken on most of the discharge thus was now knocked half-unconscious, mumbling unintelligent things. "What was… that just now?"

The older sister, on the other hand, simply sat on her rear with her back slightly hunched as she rubbed the back of her head while having closed her eyes shut tight. Atsuko's lips were no longer in a scowl but in a mere slight pout with her brows scrunched upwards as she whimpered quietly, "Well, damn! There was _NO_ reason whatsoever to have to go _that_ far…"

Louise had perked up a bit at realizing something after hearing what the twins had separately said. Saito was now getting up after gathering his bearings, facing the pinkette, and posing as if he were to reach for her. "I held back 'cause you're cute, but if I have to use force…" Atsuko's only thought at that as she began to stand on her two feet, deadpanning, was, _I don't think that's something you should say to_ any _girl_. Louise's thought on the matter was completely different as she spoke with Saito having grabbed her shoulders, a look of surprise masking her face entirely.

"I understand! I understood that!"

… _Wait…_ "What?" Atsuko said softly, totally confused at what just happened.

 **MAGICAL TIME SKIP**

…

Well, that was a thing.

After the little mishap of the so-called "Silence" spell, Saito thought it would be a good idea to book it out of there, dragging Atsuko with him. Their freedom was short lived, however, as they were promptly capture just as we stepped foot out of the tower by Guiche. With a one-two wave of his rose… wand? Rose-wand?ꟷ he made Atsuko trip and fall with vines, while Saito was floated off the ground. Guiche had then decided it would have been a fun idea to "play" with the floating Saito, swinging him about. Atsuko, at the time, was busy with trying to get the vines off. She only looked up at Saito when he screamed, making her see what he saw up in the sky.

Two moons.

Anyway now, they're back in Louise's dorm room, tired and irritated, with both Hiraga twins sitting while chained up with collars around their necks! Atsuko was once again thinking, _this bitch_. So now, they are attempting to tell her thatꟷ

"LADY! We are _NOT_ from this world!" Atsuko was more than irritated. Who wouldn't be? After face-planting into the dirt and now not being able to sleep even though it was probably passed midnight. Now throw in the collar and chain, WHO wouldn't be more than agitated at this point!?

"Yeah," Saito went on, whilst holding up his chain. "Up until a few moments ago, we were in Tokyo, Japan, on Earth."

"I don't believe you." Louise had deadpanned, denying the "possible" truth, before taking a seat by her table having of a sip of her tea. A vein popped a bit on Atsuko's face at Louise apparent denial before speaking calmly with a bit of a hiss. "You think we would make this sort of stuff up!?"

Saito continued, nodding. "Yeah! All we did was enter some weird gateway, and ended up here!"

Louise simply hummed as she continued to sip her tea while the brunette twin gritted her teeth as she spoke out louder, borderline yelling, in a demanding tone. "Anyway, take us back to where we used to be!"

"Impossible."

"Don't say that so simply!" After Saito had said that, Louise had tossed her cloak onto Saito's face as she began to vaguely explain, all the while unbuttoning her shirt. "No matter who it's with, or where they're from, the Contract is absolute!" Louise had then tossed her shirt, skirt, and stockings to Atsuko, who caught hold of them before they could hit her face and raised her voice demandingly. "Oi! That doesn't explain anything! With all this talk of "Summoning" and "Magic" and "Familiars"! Just what the hell is all that supposed to mean!?"

Louise had already stripped herself of her panties, tossing them to Saito, when she yelled at Atsuko as she placed on her night gown. "Alright! I'll explain more clearly, so be quiet!" After which, the twins quieted down with Saito whimpering while Atsuko growled silently. "The Summoning determines which type of Magic a person will use. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind—and the lost element of "Void" … All Magic is intimately related to life." Then Louise went off bragging as she sat on the edge of her bed. "And so! Magic Users are naturally all… Nobles!"

"I don't care about that stuff!" Atsuko had yelled out. "What I want know is _why_ is it impossible for us to return to our home!?"

Louise gave the brunette a 'duh' look as she began to explain that part as well. "Not only is going back to your world impossible, the "Servant Summoning" is a one-way spell."

Atsuko tch-ed while Saito keh-ed while saying the same thing in unison. "So much for your "Nobility" and "Magic", huh?"

"Umm, you know," Louise continued as she flushed a bit in response. "How about just thinking of what's to come? Watching what you say and doing as I tell you isn't really that bad…" After saying that, Atsuko frowned deeply as she silently glared at the floor boards, thinking in obvious fury. _This is bullshit! Now what do I do!? The plan won't be able to continue, much less start, if I'm not there. Fuck!_

Saito, on the other hand, raised his hand in question, blushing. "Umm… Weren't you in the least bit unnerved at the fact that a guy such as myself saw you get undressed for bed?"

Louise was pulling back that blankets when she gave a questioning glance. "Huh? Guy? Where?" Saito felt irked as he sent a small glare in the pinkette's direction while she leaned in the twins' direction a bit. "I think you're getting the wrong ideas about this… You and your sister are my Familiars, understand? That means whatever your master orders you to do, you should both nicely obey like a good Dog and Cat."

And she tucked herself to sleep, Louise gave out her first order to the Hiraga kids. "Having that said, go wash those for me in the morning." Obviously referring to the used clothes and panty on their laps. Before Saito could object or complain, Atsuko head locked the boy, quickly covering his mouth with her hand as she gave a somewhat level-headed response to the pinkette.

"It'll be done early morning, Little Lady." Atsuko kept an eye on Louise's reaction. The noble girl had twitched, but did not look her way. "But please keep in mind, a cat can only obey if it believes it will get something beneficial out of obedience. Unlike dogs."

At that, Louise sent a quick glance, narrowing her pink eyes a bit. "Yes. I'll keep that in mind… good night."

To Saito, Atsuko whispered to him as he had continued to squirm in the lock. "If you really want to get back home, then you help me find a way on the down low, got it?" Saito had stopped squirming to hear her out then nodded. After releasing him, the siblings readied themselves to sleep on their respective piles. And just before the older sister could drift off to sleep, Saito quietly popped a question that's been bugging him. "Hey, Sis?"

"Mm?"

"Where's my backpack?"

* * *

 _ **A/N: This story is also posted on Wattpad under the name jus_shipping_OTPs46 with the cover art done by me posted on DeviantArt under lostcreator64. Like. Comment. Follow. Supportive criticism. NO FLAMES!**_

 _ **THANK YOU! Foxluvur64 GONE!**_


	2. Chapter 2- Poly-Timer

_**Hellooo~ people! Before we get on with the show, I'd like to thank the people who Favorited and/or Followed, and respond to any Comments/Reviews! SO! Here we go!**_

 _ **THANK YOU TO: nburr16, OBgaming, and DevatheDetectiveOverlord; MadmanDSD, Accelerator7460, Rocquetzalcoatl, and Goodalwayswins98; zombiedragon12, OechsnerC, Sigma920, and GF255. THANK YOU!**_

 _ **Now the Commenters/Reviewers:**_

 _ **tamerlan110- Yes. Never underestimate the twins... ANY twins for that matter.**_

 _ **OechsnerC- Thank you, I try to make things interesting when it comes to story writing!**_

 _ **flo463- Okay, so it's gonna seem like an OC x Yuri-harem, but that's not really gonna be the case. I assure you, the only harem there'll ever be in this story will be Saito's. It'll only be OC x Cannon-Character (more specifically, a background-slash-supporting character) for Atsuko. Hope this clears it all up!**_

 _ **Remember: FOLLOW, FAVORITE, COMMENT/REVIEW, and NO FLAMES! Thank You! Now on with the show!**_

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Poly-Timer**

 **General P.O.V.**

The sun had not even dawned when the eldest twin awoke the next morning and upon seeing an unknown ceiling the moment she opened her eyes, Atsuko knew instantly that what had happened was no dream at all. That she and her younger twin, Saito, weren't in _their_ world any more. The brunette groaning silently. _'_ _Fuck. Only less than 24 hours and I'm already impatient to get home.'_

Atsuko sighed, which then turned into a yawn. Last night, she was supposed to have gone to sleep the moment they had hit the hay. Sleep had deluded her the instant Saito had asked about his _backpack_ , of all things. She had told him it was under the table in front of her, after which the giant idiot decided to reach for it. After making sure that his bag was in the spot that Atsuko had pointed out to him, it was then nearly impossible for the eldest to sleep. So, to become tired, the brunette had quietly forced Saito out the dorm with her to get the pinkette's laundry over with. The youngest twin had complained, but soon got over it as he helped with the washing and hanging of the used clothes, which lasted for at least an hour and a half.

Now, they were to retrieve the laundry before anyone else were to wake. That being so, Atsuko smacked a loose fist against her brother's chest, which resulted with Saito waking with a start, then yawned before rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Wha-? Huh? Oh, just you, Sis. What's up?"

The brunette shifted to sit up as she stretched the slumber from her body in a sort of cat-like motion. "Get up. We got to go bring in the Little Lady's laundry before she wakes."

Saito had then given her a drowsy look as he whispered. "But what about what you said about cats obeying for so long? Don't that mean that you'll be disobeying soon?"

The sister glanced over at her brother and simply placed a forefinger over her lips as she sent him a small, sideways smile. "Nope. Not just yet. Anyway, let's hurry up before the Little Lady becomes a miniature grouch with a temper when she wakes."

Saito rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Silently, the twins stood up, picking straws of hay off their hair and clothes before soundlessly going out the door and closed it in the same manner. Quickly and quietly, they ran down the stairs, out the dorm tower, and toward the multiple laundry lines, looking for Louise's clothes, swiftly finding them. Having picked up a large woven basket, the twins sat and folded the clothes in less than ten minutes between the two of them, while going over yesterday's school lessons, of all things.

"Saito," the brunette spoke up as she placed the last folded article of clothing in the basket, the sun already starting to peek in the sky. "Take the clothes to the pink prat. I'm gonna be walking around, check things out."

The boy gave Atsuko a black look. "What!? Why me? Why not you?"

"Because I don't wanna be there when she orders either one of us to dress her for the day." The brunette said deadpanning in a 'I-don't-really-like-that-bitchy-brat' attitude, then in a matter-of-factly tone. "Aside from the fact that I want you to finally grow some _without_ being a giant pervert, there is also the little thing called "reconnaissance". If _you_ did go, you'd probably end up doing something perverse without your own realization."

Saito sweat dropped. "There is no way that that'll happen with me, Sis."

Atsuko rolled her eyes as she stood up and walked off in a different direction, while waving back at her brother. "Yeah, right. Anyway, better go take the clothes back to Louise. I don't wanna hear any complaints from her about your habit of non-punctuality on the first here. Ciao!" And with that the older brunette left the boy alone.

Saito glared after his sister, sticking his tongue out at her. "Bitch."

MAGICAL TIME SKIP

The sun had begun to peek over the Academy walls, soft rays of light peering through the open stone arch-hallway, hitting the floor the Atsuko walked upon as her dark blue gaze focus on her path while her mind had commenced to wander elsewhere. Thoughts of anger, frustration, and agitation darted about in the space of her mind; wonders of helplessness crashed into the walls of her psyche. All the while two questions screamed out in the center of her mind, made vibrant with all four emotions: _What do I do now? How do I get back?_

Forcing her eyes shut, Atsuko ran a hand through her near caramel-chocolate bangs, huffing in annoyance, as she continued to walk. Not noticing that she had walked into a main building hallway, the young Japanese girl silently grumbles as she thought about her misfortune so far. _'_ _If it weren't for Saito's impeccable curiosity, we wouldn't be here at all. And not that we're here, we were practically forced into Familiar Contract, in which we had NO say whatsoever! What's probably even worse is the fact that the contract was made with a prissy, pink-haired BLUE-BLOOD shrimp with a temper problem worse than a mama bear.'_ Atsuko huffed once more in irritation as she continued to survey the hallways entrances and doors. _'_ _The only good thing that happened to me yesterday before we came here was that I was able to close the deal for Operation Fall of Rome just in time. But even that's down the drain now that we're in this world, unless I find a way back. Which looks impossi_ _ꟷ'_

The brunette had lost her train of thought the moment she crashed into someone, since wasn't paying attention in that moment. Even though she was partially surprised, Atsuko had lashed a hand out on reflex, taking hold of the falling person. All while her final thought raced across her mind: _'_ _Karma must just_ love _being a bitch.'_ As she made sure that the unfortunate individual wouldn't fall, the being started to question her well-being in a slightly raised but soft voice. "Oh my God! I'm sorry! Are you alright?"

Taking a back a bit, Atsuko stuttered a little as she tried to reply while taking in the person's appearance. "H-huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Thank you for asking, although I should be the one asking," Atsuko had to look down a bit as the girl, she then realized, was a little shorter than her. The girl had long dark brown hair with the bangs squarely cut while the rest was layered, which complimented her soft, pale peachy skin. She wore the Academy's standard uniform of white dress shirt and black skirt with a pair of dark thigh-highs and black oxfords, a light brown cloak and a gold pentagram pendant topping it all off. But what had caught Atsuko's attention, were the girl's large purple, almost violet, doe-like eyes which sparkled with concern. _'_ _Violet…eyes? Or are they Lavender? Wait- she's a student here. Where have I seen her before?'_ "Are you alright, Missꟷ?" Atsuko inquired.

The younger brunette, who had sighed in relief, replied. "O-oh, uh, pleased to meet your acquaintance, my name's Katherina de La Ortega del Leone, but you can call me "Katie". And you are?" _'_ _Isn't she one of Miss Valliere's Familiars?'_

"My name's Atsuko Hiraga. Nice to meet you, Miss Katie." _'_ _Now I remember. She's that girl that was talking with Blonde Douche_ _ꟷ_ _What's his name? Guiche?_ _ꟷ_ _in the hallway last night when we tried to run. What does she see in that Aryan-Nazi wannabe? He's obviously a typical player.'_

"Anyway," Katie started, her voice filled with curiosity and a hint of caution as her violet eyes observed the taller brunette. "May I ask why you're strolling about?"

 _'Cautious, aren't you?'_ Atsuko gave a small smile in amusement as she was about to answer. However, she was rudely interrupted by an overtly shrilly voice shouting out what Atsuko assumed what was now her title. "CAT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Atsuko winced at the sharp volume, her right hand immediately went to cover one of her ears in an attempt to lessen the inevitable ringing as she grumbled under her breath. "Christ! The _HELL_ is her problem?" The taller turned to face her Master with the look of irritation visible on both of their faces as Saito wisely stood away with a look of slight uneasiness at the possible prospect of a cat-fight (no pun intended). Katie, on the other hand, stood behind Atsuko as she looked on with innate curiosity, a small smile visibly dancing on her lips. "How can I help you this fine morning, Little Lady? And by the way, my name isn't "Cat", it's _Atsuko_."

Louise snapped at her as her face became flushed with irritation, before pointing a finger at her female Familiar. "Whatever! And who gave you permission to go walking about this early in the morning? You were only supposed to get the laundry and that was it unless I ordered otherwise!"

Atsuko narrowed her eyes as the forefinger of her right hand twitched in annoyance and the look in her eye was enough of a hint for Saito that if anybody doesn't step in soon, his older twin might do something that she won't admit regretting. _'_ _Sweet mother of Buddha! Don't do it, Sis!'_ Just as he was about to reach out to either one of the two girls, Katie, the girl who had no reason whatsoever to step in, spoke up. "U-um, I'm sorry, Miss Valliere!" The other three teens looked over at Katie. "I had asked your Familiar Atsuko to help me carry some books back to the library."

The taller brunette noticed Katie sending her a glance and caught on quick. "Yeah, that's right. In fact, we were coming back from there." Katie then gave a small bow in apology to Louise. "I'm terribly sorry. I should have asked or at least had her inform you where she would be at."

Slightly flustered, Louise waved her hands a bit as she replied. "What? Oh, no, that's alright, Miss Ortega! If she was with you, then that's fine. But now, we all should go. Breakfast is about to start in the dining hall."

"Right."

And with that the four teens started to go in the direction where the twins assumed was the dining hall. While Saito and Louise walked toward the front of the group, the two brunettes followed quietly behind them which gave Atsuko the chance to whisper Katie a question. "Miss Katie? Was the library really in that direction you were coming from?"

Katie winked at the older brunette as she smiled, placing a finger near her smiling lips, whispering back her response. "Yes, but so is the Student Kitchen."

 _'Ah. Making a pastry for Blonde Douche. She had promised him in the hall last night, didn't she?'_ Atsuko had surmised as she nodded. From then on, the teens had remained quiet as they walked until they arrived at the open doors of the dining hall, where they then split off from Katie, saying their good days. While the young brunette went to one table, Louise, Saito, and Atsuko went to a table where most of the second years sat as Kirche pointed them out to Montmorency, who sat next to the red bombshell. "They're here. The much-rumored run-away Familiars and their Master…"

 **MAGICAL TIME SKIP**

"O Great Founder Brimir, and our Lady the Queen,

We thank You for this humble meal

That You graciously provided us this morning."

Finishing their thanks for the food prayer, all the students, including Louise, began to eat their extravagant meal. The twins, however, sat on the floor just behind Louise's chair with two rolls of rye bread and two bowls of broth placed before them to eat. Atsuko's right forefinger twitched as she looks at their meal before glancing irritated at Louise's. _'_ _The_ humble meal _'s right here. Christ! The social hierarchy really is like the Middle Ages back home. If there really Nobles and Peasants here, then there's gotta be a Royal Family in charge of this kingdom_ _ꟷ_ _what did the Little Lady call it again? Tristain? Tristain Kingdom?'_

"Ah… For commoner Familiars like you two," Louise spoke to the Hiraga siblings as she ate, making Atsuko look up but also realize that Saito will be reacting to this differently soon. "Rye bread and broth should be plenty."

Saito look up, glaring at the pinkette as he growled out. "Don't taunt us… I won't stand this kind of oppreꟷ!" Atsuko made sure that Saito didn't incur Louise's wrath by shoving her own roll of bread into her brother's mouth in that precise moment while swiping his bread as she hissed. "Shut _up_ , Saito! I don't feel like being on the near blunt end of that shrimp's _violent_ temper! Unlike you, I'm _NOT_ a _masochistic DOG_!"

"B-But the bread's really hard to _BITE_ into!" Saito said in a whining tone as he demonstrated by trying to bite off a piece with a lot of strain. Atsuko simply rolled her eyes as she took a piece out of Saito's-turned-her-own bread while the boy cried crocodile tears. "Whatever."

The three very contradicting teens soon finished their meals and proceeded to leave the building, going out into the yard.

"Normally, Familiars wait outside during a meal." Louise started to explain as she walked. "I especially let you two stay with me."

Atsuko stared pointedly at the back of the pinkette's head while Saito made an exclamation. "If that's the case, I'd rather eat elsewhere! Right, Atsuko?"

Hearing that her foolish brother had forcibly brought her into the conversation, she sent him a glare. "Don't bring me into your crap, Saito." While that happened, a vein popped on Louise's face in annoyance. The brunette twin and the dark hair twin then noticed what was going on up ahead and proceeded to ask simultaneously. "What's everyone doing?"

Pristine white round tables and chairs were placed about on the fresh green lawn with two or three second years sat at each one, all of them accompanied by their own Familiar. Maids could be seen here and there as they served students tea or coffee to drink, or a specially ordered sweet pastry to eat. Louise then clarified what they were seeing. "Oh. All second-year students have the day off today. We're all supposed to communicate with our freshly-summoned Familiars."

"I'd just as soon pass." Saito gloomily responded as his sister simply hummed. They were just about to keep on walking when a voice called their attention. "Oh?" Turning, the first thing to catch the twins' attention was the huge head of Kirche's red salamander, with its maw slightly opened and large highlighter yellow eyes looking right at them. The sudden sight caused Saito to jump back a bit as he yelped while Atsuko quickly hid behind her younger brother, not saying anything as a very rigid and fearful look was obvious in her eyes. "It's some red thing!"

Kirche chuckled at their overreaction. "Is this the first time you two have seen a salamander?"

Atsuko responded by squeaking out, "Keep it on a leash! That was dangerous!"

"Oh, it's alright," Kirche said in a cooing voice. "Familiars under contract faithfully obey every order from their Master and they never run away. Isn't that right, Flame?" The red salamander named 'Flame' responded with a cheerful 'keur-keu-keu!' and a wag of its flamed tail. Kirche then sent a teasing smile to Louise, who in turn snapped at the bombshell. "Don't give me that!"

The dark-skinned redhead stood up and continued to tease the smaller pinkette. "I wonder, didn't you just sneak in a pair of peasants that were walking in the area? You cover them up pretty well with that explosion."

"That's not true!" Louise bit back, trying hard to keep whatever honor and pride she might have left. "I performed the summons properly! These two just happened to show up!"

Kirche shrugged. "Well, they're very befitting of Louise the Zero." She then laughed as walked off with her Flame following, going towards the tables.

"What is up with that wench?!" Louise had growled out as she shook her fist before turning to the twins, pointing to Saito then to Atsuko as she yelled at them. "Don't just stand there! You! Bring me some tea at least! And you! You're with me!" The shorter pinkette proceeded walk towards the tables as well. Saito glanced down at his sister as she glanced up at him, both not exactly sure of what just happened.

"Better go get the tea, Saito."

MAGICAL TIME SKIP

As Saito went off to get Louise some tea, Atsuko quickly caught up with her "Master" as they came to an empty table. Learning from this morning, and from what her older "sister" taught her, Atsuko quickly pulled out a chair for Louise to sit. The pinkette took her seat while Atsuko stood to her side with her hands in her jacket pockets as she began to observe her surroundings.

The brunette's silent bubble was popped, however, when Louise broke the ice. "Hey, are you two _really_ from a different world?"

Atsuko raised a brow as she sent a questioning glanced down at the sitting pinkette as she gave a sort of interrogative questioning reply. "I thought you don't believe us?"

Louise glared at the standing brunette. "I don't. But I'm only trying to do the communication part of this dumb event!" Atsuko just gave her a look. "Well? _Are_ you really from a different world?"

Atsuko rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Me and Saito _really_ are from a _very_ different world."

"Alright, then describe it to me."

The brunette and the pinkette sent each other looks. Not really feeling like causing trouble just yet, Atsuko began. "Let's see…how to do this…" The older girl looks around here and realizes something. "You know…there aren't that many wild forests, or jungles, left in my world any more. And if there is one, it would be under protective-surveillance of the whatever-country's government it happens to be on the soil of. That, or it's being torn down by greedy investors for either more land to build cities on, cultivate a farm industry, or simply to be able to create a mining system to drain out whatever valuable or non-valuable resource out of the piece of land."

Atsuko then looked up at the Academy building, observing its walls with an almost sad admiration. "In terms of education, a very large majority of the population has access to schooling via public and private educational establishments. Most of the time, it wouldn't matter how poor or rich of a family you came from because it's highly required that a child was to receive some level of education, especially considering how advanced our world is, which is practically a law." Louise gave her a dubious look.

"However, that doesn't mean that every government is going to obey that law. Politicians that are in the political game for the money would perverse the education system by having families, including the poor income families, pay a monthly schooling fee. When it comes to education for genders, there are less than a few countries that banishes girls and women from being able to gain schooling." The brunette then looked over at the other students, seeing how each one of them were obliviously occupied with their own friends and Familiars. "And… there is no longer any kingdoms, empires, and Nobles and Royals of power. There is no longer such a concept of Monarchy anymore. The monarchs were constantly torn down in the hopes of creating equality between all people, despite class and social hierarchy."

Louise's mouth was gaping, a look of unbelieving shock was plastered on her face. "Unfortunately, that attempt of social, then racial, equality then lead to wars as different but large and powerful governments started to enforce their own various ideas and versions of equality. One government went as far as closing its borders and people off from the rest of the world. That said government is now constantly trying to pick fights with another major country. During the last world war, more than 80 million lives were lost for all those involved."

Atsuko then looked back down at her pink haired Master with a sort of somber gaze. "The point is, Louise, is that while me and Saito are from a different world with no magical concept whatsoever but still with large leaps of technological and medical advancements, we are still Human. Plus, Humans by nature are selfish, greedy, and worse, tend to be unforgiving over the smallest of things. That means that no matter what social standing a person may be born into, you can count on Human nature to show you the ugly side of things." Then she looked up at the mountainous horizon and placed a forefinger on her chin as if in thought before finishing her melancholy description. "And I guess that includes my pessimistic views on things."

Louise was still giving Atsuko a surprised, but skeptical look as questions spread about frantically in her mind. _'_ _There... are no Monarchs? How? And… eighty million people… died in their last war?! B-but… they don't have Magic, so how were they killed?'_ While the pinkette was preoccupied with her questions, the brunette continued to observe their surroundings until something caught her eye, causing her to smirk.

 _'Oh, little brother. You're just picking for a fight, aren't you?'_

What had caused her to smirk was the prevocational problem that her younger twin was purposely causing for a certain Guiche. From where she stood, Atsuko could not hear what was said, however, was able to lip read some of their chaotic conversation.

From Guiche, being frantic for some reason, said something like, " _Hurry… go back to…business, Vader!_ "

The brunette's head jerked back a bit as she tried to process what she then realized she had misread. _'_ _Vader? The fuck_ _ꟷ_ _Oh! He said 'waiter'.'_ Atsuko then turned to Louise. "Hey, lil' Lady? How can you tell the difference between the upperclassmen and underclassmen?"

The pinkette looks up at the older girl with a glowering look before answering. "You can tell by the color of our cloaks. The freshmen have brown colored cloaks, while juniors have black colored ones and seniors have more navy-blue colored capes."

Atsuko hummed as she looked back over to the commotion. ' _So that makes Guiche a second year and Katie a freshman, and by the looks of what's going on over there, he's main girl is a second-year chick while Miss Katie is his side chick._ ' Then in a sort of dismissive toned whisper. "Whelp, looks like Saito's gonna start some trouble with Blonde Boy."

Louise looked up at Atsuko with bewilderment, hoping that she heard her wrong. "What?!"

But the brunette just ignored her and continued, this time with a dark look of disdain gleaming in her navy eyes. "Not like I'm gonna stop him though. That playboy deserves what's coming to him. If anyone think that people are for their own personal conquest of lust, regardless of gender, then they should be place solitary confinement!"

The noble pinkette could only stare at the brunette in shock, taken aback by what her Familiar had said. Even more so after what she said next.

"I think I'mma go help him. I gotta make him payback for that vine thing last night." Then walked off in her twin's direction, completely ignoring Louise's order to halt.

"Hey! Wait! Stop!" The brunette did not listen and kept walking. She did stop, however, when she foot stepped on what seemed like a bundle of letters. ' _This is quite a lot of letters. They can't all be for one person, right?_ ' Atsuko then notice that a certain bunch of rune lettering seemed to be the same, giving her a hunch. ' _If I'm right, then these'll come in handy._ '

Atsuko reached Saito just as he had finished telling Katie where he had seen Guiche, smiling mischievously as he pointed his thumb in said direction, hearing the younger brunette give her thanks. Watching the freshman run off toward the two, young noble blonde 'lovers' with a cool mask, the brunette twin spoke in a low voice with a tone that was more impish, using the name that she used for him as children. "Ready for some fun, Sai-chan?"

Saito's smile turned into a dark smirk as he replied to his older twin. "Oh, you have no idea, Atsu-chan."

He then switched his smirk to a taunting, carefree grin as he called out to Guiche while Atsuko slipped into the same kind of smile. "Good for you!" The blonde male quickly looked over in their way. "You were saying that you would love to have some it. Ain't that right, Sis?"

Atsuko nodded, her smile still in place with her sense of calm very much present in her dark blue eyes, a bit of disdain flashing for a moment before disappearing. "Yeah. And didn't he say something about how she was the only one for him?"

"And how he would never lie to her about his love for her? Yep. Pretty much."

Guiche stuttered. "Y-you!"

The brunette twin snickered. "It's nothing. Just telling the truth, right?"

Montmorency peered straight at her supposed lover in suspicion. "What is the meaning of this, Guiche?!"

Guiche stepped back a bit before loudly talking directly at the twins, swing an arm open as if presenting the problematic situation. "What is it that you are going on about?! You're going to found needles misunderstanding between these ladies!"

A crowd began to form, becoming an audience to the problem. "What's going on?"

"Guiche is picking a fight with those peasant familiars."

Then pretending that an idea came to mind, Atsuko bumped a fist on an open palm as she spoke to the two-timed girls with a phony guiltless smile before taking out the bundle of letters from earlier. "Oh! I just remembered! Hey! Can one of you two read the names off these letters? I found them while walking over here. Even though me and my brother can't read your language, I found a peculiar detail stuck to me. A small bunch of writings was the same on every envelope."

Montmorency stretched out a hand and spoke in a calm yet snappy manner. "I'll read them. Give it to me!"

"Wait! Montmorency!"

And with no hesitation visible on her face, nor in her eyes, Atsuko tossed the bundle to the blonde, drill-haired girl while Saito decided to chime in. "Ah, don't tell me these are love letters? Are the envelopes seriously rose-printed? Woah, man. Talk about taste." His twin snickered.

All involved and the audience waited with baited breath as the blonde girl went over every single envelope while Guiche became more panicky with every passing second. The only one not really paying attention was Katie as she allowed to her lavender-violet eyes to settle on Atsuko with a questioning gaze when she noticed something about her.

Saito then continues the talking with an impish grin. "By the way, what part of it is a misunderstanding?" The older sister gave a curt nod as she placed her hands in her jacket's pockets. "Right. Besides, you're the one at fault for two-timing. And by the looks of those letters, you were probably seeing more than just these two girls."

Guiche began to panic more as Katie confronted him. "Two-timing?!"

"The peasant girl's right!" Montmorency snapped, looking up from the letters before gnashing her teeth in anger. "Not only did you have something going on with this first year, but you were also seeing other girls from all grades!"

The noble boy attempted to calm the blonde girl, but was interrupted by Atsuko as she called attention while wagging her with a taunting smile as her brows were furrowed upwards in fake concern. "Tut-tut-tut. See? This is what happens when you two-time, or in this case, poly-time, people. They'll find out sooner or later, either by suspicion, accident, or by a third party." Then her taunting mask fell, replaced with an empty one and a dark gleam in her eyes, sending tremors down Guiche's spine in unacknowledged fear. "If you believe that women are for your own personal conquests and entertainment, then you should get rid of your manly bit and subjugate yourself to a worse, tyrannical man. I'm sure he would teach you much more _lovely_ things."

"How horrible!" Katie stepped up to Guiche. "You said that I was the only one!"

The troubled noble stuttered. "I-In any case, both of you, calm down." His plea to the girls was ignored as they ganged up together, yelling simultaneously. "CHEATER!" And ended with Montmorency giving Guiche a good, hard slap to his face, leaving a red welting hand-print on his cheek, making him fall on his behind. Atsuko mockingly winced. "Ooh! That happens, too." She watched as the girls made it seem like they were leaving the area, but saw that they were just going to hide in the crowd.

The student audience began to laugh as one large, burly class with his owl Familiar settled on his shoulder pointed out the painful obviousness. "You just got dumped, Guiche. Well, I agree with the peasant girl Familiar, you definitely deserved what you just got."

While Atsuko was paying attention to the noble boy, Guiche looked up at the twins glaring, as if it were their fault for his demise, before standing up as he spoke to them in a forced authoritarian ton. "You two there… It seems neither of you do not know how to pay respect to Nobility. You are simply asking for trouble."

Saito grinned and Atsuko smiled before the brother took over. "Unfortunately, we come from a world from a world that has nothing to do with that."

Guiche then chuckled darkly at the 'new' information. "Is that so? Very well, then, I challenge you to a duel!"

The twins glanced at each other with muddle looks on their faces, questioning in chorus. "A duel?"

"That's right! I challenge you, boy, to a duel!"

Atsuko's right hand twitched with vex. "Oi! 'Boy'? what about me?!"

Guiche shook his head as he places his rose-wand near his forehead. "Nonsense! I cannot challenge a girl! It would ruin my reputation!"

"What reputation?" The brunette deadpanned, not wanting to take shit. "Your rep is already destroyed the moment me and my brother called you out as a two-timer—"

"Poly-timer, Sis. We agreed on that."

Atsuko nodded to Saito in appreciation for his correction. "Right. Poly-timer. We called you out as a poly-timer." Then peering straight at Guiche with an unwavering gaze. "So, by that logic, if you challenge one of us, you challenge both of us."

Guiche growled before agreeing. "Fine! You two are nothing, but mere peasants, and Familiars to boot. Yet you have mocked me and on top of that, you made two ladies cry!"

The brunette twin barked. "Ha! Crying?"

The dark-haired twin continued grinning. "They were both hopping mad!"

"Prepare yourselves!" The blonde noble roared frowning, pointing his rose-wand in the immediate direction. "I will be waiting at Vestori Square!"

With one hand placed on his hip, and his sister's hands still in her pockets, both Saito and Atsuko watched Guiche walk off in relaxed poses, a grin and smile very much evident on their faces. The first victory was short lived, however, when a certain pinkette and a certain brunette freshman walked up to them, with the older noble girl immediately calling out to them. "You two! What are you doing?!"

Taking hold of one arm for each twin, Louise began to drag them after her, Katie following them as the twins exclaimed. "What?"

The younger brunette spoke up in an annoyed tone, looking right at Atsuko. "What do you mean 'what'? Not only did your brother accept Lord Guiche's challenge, but you made him challenge you as well! A man is never supposed to challenge a lady!"

The older brunette glance down at the freshman as she spoke in a firm tone. "I'm sorry, but from the looks of things, that Guiche, as you called him, is _**NOT**_ a man, but a _boy_. A Man would not be sent to an academy filled with pubescent children and a Man _definitely_ would not be trying to make up petty excuses as he just tried." Katie gaped at her as they all came to a standstill, Atsuko yanked her arm from a gawking Louise as Saito grinned uneasily. "And if being a 'lady' means to be on the side lines, acting like a damsel in distress, then I'd rather be a feral feline. At least they have enough sense in them to fight back."

Saito chuckles before turning to ask Louise. "So, uh, where are we going?"

The pinkette shakes her head out of her stupor then snapped at the poor boy as she turned to leave, catching hold Atsuko's hand once again. "We are going to apologize to Guiche. If we go now, he might still forgive you two."

Her response did not sit well with the twins, making them stop walking and give their double rare second chorus retort. "I refuse."

Louise and Katie gaped as Saito went on, his voice having a firm yet gentle tone as if trying to explain to a couple of children. "If you are going to say that we can't beat him just because we're peasants, then you got another thing coming."

Atsuko continued, her own voice firm, but not so gentle, in fact it was, piercing. "You and your people constantly depend on your Magic and status as Nobility, and that can be your downfall. So, I guess you could say that we intend to show you how to fight otherwise. Right, Saito?"

The dark-haired twin nodded solemnly. "Right."


	3. Chapter 3-A Very Stupid Move

**Chapter Three: A V** **ery** **STUPID** **Move**

 _ **Previously on the Hiraga Twins…**_

 _ **Louise and Katie gaped as Saito went on, his voice having a firm yet gentle tone as if trying to explain to a couple of children. "If you are going to say that we can't beat him just because we're peasants, then you got another thing coming."**_

 _ **Atsuko continued, her own voice firm, but not so gentle, in fact, it was piercing. "You and your people constantly depend on your Magic and status as Nobility, and that can be your downfall. So, I guess you could say that we intend to show you how to fight otherwise. Right, Saito?"**_

 _ **The dark-haired twin nodded solemnly. "Right."**_

* * *

 **Atsuko's P.O.V.**

I wait with a blank look on my face as I looked right Katie while Saito turned to ask someone from the crowd of students. The emotion visible on her face was annoyance, but her brilliant lavender eyes shown bright with silent pleas.

"Hey, where is Vestori Square?"

I think it was the same owl-Familiar student who answered, pointing in the immediate direction that we were heading in. _'Wasn't he the one who agreed with me?'_ "Oh, over there. That way."

The Pink Shrimp yelled the student's name in irritation. "Malicorne!"

"Thanks!" Giving our thanks and giving a wave of gratitude to the chubby boy, Saito nearly sped off before slowing down a bit, turning back to me, myself going at relatively slower pace than him. "C'mon, Sis! Hurry the hell up!"

I lazily flicked my hand as I picked up my pace a bit, leaving Katie behind with Louise. "Yeah, yeah! I'm coming, I'm coming."

 **MAGICAL TIME SKIP**

Now Saito and I stood, side by side, roughly two paces away from Guiche as the students made a ring around us. Louise and Katie stood behind us, the pink Shrimp looking annoyed and pissed while Katie was also annoyed but had a more worried look to her.

The obnoxious boy pointed his rose-wand at us. "I commend that you and you sister didn't run away and instead came here!"

Saito pointed a finger at Guiche in a defiant manner. "Ha! Like we'd run away!"

I continued with bold promise, with my arms crossed. "We're going to clip that arrogance of yours down a few notches!"

"WAIT!" _'Fuck. Here comes lil' miss prissy.'_ She had run up to Guiche as I began to block this conversation out a bit. Something about how duels were forbidden. Then the Poly-Timer replied with that duels are forbidden between aristocrats.

"They are Plebeians. So, there's no problem."

Once again blocking them out of my hearing, a thought came to mind. _'Ah, crap! I nearly forgot!'_ With that popping to mind, I quickly unzipped my brown jacket completely and took it off, then turned to Katie, who stood almost behind me. Carefully, I made sure that my phone was still in its pocket and that it wouldn't fall out as I walked over to the younger brunette, fully ignoring whatever beck-and-calls that Aryan-wannabe sent my way. Keeping in mind how I had rudely responded to her earlier before, I decided to have some tact. "Um, Miss Ortega? Could I ask of you a favor?"

Katie seemed slightly taken aback when I had called her by her family name but replied nonetheless with a small air of dignity. "Depends on what the favor may by be."

Sucking in a breath, I gave a small bow as I held out my doubled jacket in the middle of us. "May I implore of you to hold onto my jacket until the end of this duel?!"

 **Katie's P.O.V.**

Miss Atsuko bowed before me as she nearly thrusted her brown- sort of pinkish? – coat into my face, making me almost step back in surprise. Everyone around me, including Miss Valliere and Lord Guiche, gaped at us in shock. Her brother, Saito, I believe was his name, simply smiled softly as he looked our way. Although, the smile seemed a bit… somber?

"May I implore of you to hold onto my jacket until the end of this duel?!"

' _Um—'_ "Excuse me?"

The older girl before me who, like her brother, is defiant but sardonic by nature, continued to humbly bow to me with her caramel brown bangs completely covered any way for me to see her eyes. Without looking up at me, Miss Atsuko gave her plea. "Please, Miss Ortega."

' _Why do I get the feeling that she rarely does this to anyone?'_

I quietly sighed before I took hold of her coat with both hands as I replied with, what I believe was, an exasperated tone. "Very well, I shall take on your favor."

"Thank you!" Miss Atsuko practically yelped her appreciation as her beautiful, navy-blue eyes essentially sparkled. _'Wait— did I just think her eyes as_ _"_ beautiful _"?!'_ I felt my face flushed lightly in my late realization as she turned away, walking back to the duel. But then, a question came to mind and before I could stop myself, I had blurted out that same question.

"Wait!" The lighter brunette stopped walking and glanced back to me, pausing. "Why is this coat of yours so important to you?"

Miss Atsuko widened her eyes, as if surprised, before turning to face her brother, said brother giving her a small lopsided smile while giving a one-sided shrug. Heaving a sigh, Miss Atsuko turned back to me with a slightly gloomy smile. "Afterwards. I'll tell you afterwards."

With that, she walked back for the duel to start and beneath my breath, I spoke, believing that she didn't hear me at all.

"Be sure that you do, Miss Atsuko Hiraga."

 **Atsuko's P.O.V.**

I wasn't that far away from Katie when I heard her say, "Be sure that you do, Miss Atsuko Hiraga."

My somber smile had turned into, what I hadn't known until later, a sad yet playful smirk. Looking up, I see Saito giving me a lop-sided smile with a familiar playful glint in his eyes. Guiche was giving us an arrogant smirk with the same disgusting play-boy air while Louise glared at us with embarrassed annoyance, from her neck to just above her brow, the color red flushed making the pink of her eyes and hair stand out against it. However, such a color—

' _Red_ really _doesn't suit her.'_ Was my off-handed thought, making ghost of a small snicker. Guiche immediately got back into play the moment I had stepped next to my brother, waving his rose-wand, making a couple of petals fall. "Besides, no matter what you say, the duel has already stared!"

Once the petals had fallen onto the ground before him, light flashed in a circle as two strange, light green suits of armor with oddly female accents to them. Then Guiche spoke, "My name is Guiche the Bronze. Your opponents shall be these Valkyries, my Bronze Golems."

"That's unfair!" Louise had yelled behind us, her fist waving in the air. "You're summoning Valkyries against a pair of commoners!"

"Huh," Saito gulped. "So— we're at a disadvantage, aren't we, Sis?"

I didn't try to respond my brother, instead I spoke out to Guiche. "Oi, Play-Boy!" I saw his blonde brow twitched as he scowled. "I understand that you are humoring us just to get back your Honor and your Pride." He nodded in response. "But the Lil' Lady there is right. You summoned a few _puppets_ to fight us and think you're all shit! But you want your Honor returned, so shouldn't you be able to recognize how _unfair_ and _dishonorable_ it would be for you to fight a pair of _unarmed_ _Commoners_ such as my twin and I." Guiche's scowl turned slightly hesitant, as if knowing very well of the concept. "If you believe in the honor of a fair fight, then allow us this one favor of you."

Saito leaned closer to me, hissing with his bitchy complaint. "Sis! What are you doing?!"

Guiche narrow his eyes slightly. "And what favor would that be?"

I continued, paying no heed whatsoever to my little brother and the vast whispers of the audience. "Allow my brother to borrow a sword and I a short staff." _'Wait. Why'd I say a staff? I_ suck _at that thing!'_ "That way we will be able to fight on a somewhat level standing against your golems."

With a slight frown, Guiche closed his eyes as if in deep thought. _'He might be a play boy, but if he's from the type of nobility that I think he is, then Honor and Fairness should be concepts that he should be more than familiar with.'_ Guiche then snapped his eyes open, his rose pointed at us once again. "Very well! Since I do not want it to be known in my family that I fought mere peasants with an unequal footing, a sword and a staff shall be given!" And with a flick of his wrist not only did two rose petals fall before me and Saito, but so did several more petals fall behind the first two Valkyries, with similar circles of light shining as a short staff and a Valkyrie's sword emerged forward. Just as we twin were about to take hold of said weapons respectively, Louise immediately ran up to us from behind, grabbing our respective arms and spoke with a near shrilly voice, Katie stayed where she stood at the front of the audience, just behind me with my jacket still folded in her arms.

"Don't you dare take them!" Louise tried to look at each of us in the eye, as if hoping that we would listen and follow her order. "If you do, Guiche won't be playing around anymore!"

"We can't go back to our world…" Saito's voice had a rare calmness to it as he continued to look forward. "Which means we're stuck living in this one, right?"

"Yes, that's right! So, what about it."

Even as I kept my eyes on the Valkyries, for some reason it was sort of hard to not send a glance over my shoulder in Katie's way as I felt her eyes on me. _'Why's she staring at me?'_ Saito continued with the same calm tone with me taking on the same tone as we switched sentences.

"We don't mind being your Familiars…"

"We can take sleeping on the floor… As for the food? It doesn't matter if it sucks…"

"Washing underwear? We'll do that too. It's not like we really have a choice either way. But…"

"'But' what!?" Louise questioned him. I glanced at my twin brother and he glanced at me; both of us giving each other a knowing grin as we took hold of our respective weapon with our marked hand, very similar frowns taking over our faces as we shared what could be equivalent to a battle cry.

"WE WILL NOT LOWER HEADS AND KNEEL! WE CANNOT!"

 **General P.O.V. **

After the twins took hold of their respective weapon, Saito's Familiar insignia began to glow. He, however, paid no mind to the sensation that the mark was giving off as he immediately took on a stance, his eyes focus on his opponents.

Although she still frowned, her tone of voice was teasing. "Ya know, you're still an intermediate, right?"

Saito growled in embarrassment. "Shut up! I know that!"

Taking her immediate stance, staff in hand, Atsuko's teasing attitude disappeared. "Focus. Here they come."

At this point, not only had Louise returned to the rest of the audience beside Katie, but Guiche had summoned a few more Valkyries, already charging right at them.

The first golem at the front of the group quickly fell to Saito's sword in a swift downward strike, while the next two were hit at the chest, making them fall on the others, by Atsuko's staff. Two more fell as Saito cleaved them in half with a left upward cut followed by a side swing, all the while making sure that he didn't move too much from where he stood. His sister, on the other hand, moved swiftly as she dodged the Valkyries that either tried to cut at her, or tackle her, while making sure that they fell by the tripping of the feet as she gave them good whacks to the head. The student audience cheered as they watched in awe at the rough performance.

"Huh," Atsuko stopped her movements for a moment, feeling a bit care free as she gave a small smile, holding the Bo-staff, inspecting it. "This ain't so bad. And I'm usually bad at the staff in class!"

The brunette twin made the motion of ducking before high jumping backwards over a charging golem, doing a small turn just before landing, bring down her staff on the golem's helmeted head as she did so. The students had released a near collective 'woah' when the teen had jumped so high. Atsuko continued to dodge nimbly as more Valkyries kept on charging at her as the raven-haired twin, who held his own against a pair of golems, barked at her a snarky remark.

"I knew it!" Saito said through gritted teeth as he kicked away one of the golems. "I _fucking_ knew that you— WOAH!" Dodges a Valkyrie's blade. "—that you suck at using the short staff!"

Atsuko made the small mistake of pausing to simply turn toward her twin to hiss at him— "SHUT UP! I said IN CLASS— GAAAHH!" When she got tackled to the ground by a single golem and struggled to get out before a couple more tried to dog-pile her. "FUCK!"

' _NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE! I DO_ NOT _FEEL LIKE SUFFOCATING TODAY!'_

Luckily, the caramel brunette was able to wiggle her way out before anymore of Guiche's golems joined the dog-pile. ' _Nice! Now—Wait… where's my staff?'_ Crouching, Atsuko look at her empty right hand then at the writhing pile of bronze puppets. _'Damnit.'_ She had indeed left the short staff beneath the pile when she squirmed her escape. Rising from her crouching, the brunette felt a strong sting coming from just beneath her left rib cage. Wincing as she placed her right hand on the particular spot over her black shirt, Atsuko realized a warm, sticky wetness coming from said spot. Pulling her hand away, Atsuko saw that the wetness was blood and, unknown to the brunette, the younger brunette, Katie, caught sight of the blood. _'The damn street-fight two days ago…!'_

"Fu-"

"ATSUKO! BEHIND YOU!"

After hearing Saito's cry of warning, the caramel brunette caught hearing of a Valkyrie's bronze blade singing as it swung down and, as if without thought, Atsuko's hands caught the sword in a sort of clapping motion, both hands and blade just mere centimeters from her face, blood smearing one side of the blade. Like her little brother, she, too, did not take notice of the soft glow coming from her right hand's Familiar insignia. Her only voiced thought was, in fact, something else entirely.

"GUICHE! WHAT THE ACTUAL _FUCK_?!" Atsuko's navy eyes wide in fearful panic at the near-death experience. "ARE YOU _TRYING_ TO KILL ME?!"

"US!" Was Saito's quick input.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL _US_?!"

Guiche had let out a quick sigh of relief when he saw that the older twin was able catch hold of the sword's flat sides (albeit surprised), before swiftly giving an off handed reply when Atsuko had fixed her earlier question. "Oh, don't worry so much." He pointed his rose at her. "You caught the blade, didn't you? All's well then."

Even though she was struggling quite a bit with the amount of pressure placed by the current golem, Atsuko finally took notice in what she was doing. Her hands, her _bare_ hands (one still bloody), were just barely able in stopping this sword from cleaving her in two. Not only that, the teen notice how she wasn't as tired as she was with the staff before. Her breathing was more even now, and her thoughts were clearer, too. ' _Well, this is a surpri—'_

" _ **Now, pay close attention, Atsuko, Saito."**_

Atsuko's eyes widened as time seem to have slowed to a snail's pace as old memories seem to begin to surface. The noise of her brother's sword hitting the golems blades and cutting of the armor, the cheers of the students, and the annoyed shouts of Louise have been all but silenced as they became dull hums to Atsuko's ears as her mind's eye watched the oldest memory possible.

* * *

 **Memory #1: Thirteen years ago; Age[s] 4**

 _ **Sitting in attention were Atsuko and Saito Hiraga, both age four and wearing clean kendo gi. Atsuko's caramel brown hair was relatively short, but was held in a low tail nonetheless, while Saito's near raven hair was more of a bowl cut although a part of his bangs was unkempt. Their navy-blue eyes stayed focused on a young lady in curiosity. The lady could no older than her early twenties as her face was soft looking despite having already lost any lingering baby fat, sort of contradicts with how lean her body was which showed though her indigo gi. She stood tall with her navy sight focused on the pseudo opponent for today's lesson, her long dark brown-borderline-black hair was tied in a high ponytail as her bangs were swept to the right, the coloring of her hair and eyes matching well with her lightly tanned skin, looking like an older version of the young Atsuko and an older, gender bent, dark-brunette version of the young Saito.**_

 _ **She got onto one knee as the lesson helper brought up their bokuto [1] before bringing it downwards with relative swiftness on the young lady. The two children nearly gasped aloud before the lady quickly caught the wooden blade with gloved hands, placing friction on both sides stopping it just prior to hitting her face. Normally, a person would have been in frantic panic, or, in the least, somewhat nervous, however that was not the case for this woman. Her navy eyes were calm as her face was straight with not a single drop of sweat.**_

 _ **The twins then release their breath when nothing gruesome happened, but then their attention was returned to the demonstration as the lady called to them.**_

" _ **Atsuko. Saito. Do you know what this is called?"**_

 _ **The children shook their heads. "This is a version of the technique called "**_ **Shinken Shirahadori** _ **" and it is a**_ **very** _ **stupid version."**_

 _ **Little Saito raised his hand. "Then why are you teaching it to us?" Atsuko nodded.**_

 _ **Still not moving from where she was, the lady turned her head towards the twins as she corrected the boy. "I'm not**_ **teaching** _ **it to you, I am teaching you what would very much normal happen if you**_ **do it this way** _ **."**_

 _ **Little Atsuko chirped her question. "Then what would normally happen if we did that way?"**_

 _ **Turning her head back to the bokuto, eyes focused, the lady reply. "A sword, no matter the forging style, is normally crafted to cut downward. Which means that even**_ **if** _ **you are able to do this, you'll most likely end up with a large chunk of either one, or both, of your hands cut right off.**_ **And** _ **the blade would still get lodged into your head." Even though both twins felt a chill run through them at the very thought of something like that happening, while Saito closed his eyes as reflex with the chill, Atsuko's eyes remained open as she watched admiring awe as the lady continued the rest of the demonstration. Keeping her hands on the bokuto, the young lady turned her focus on the pseudo opponent as she swiftly began to stand from her kneeling position, pushing the pseudo blade toward the helper as she did so before twisting it to her side. Taking a risk, she left the hand under the blade hold it in a grip before quickly placing a sharp hit on the helper's forthright wrist, causing him to release the handle due to the abrupt pain. The lady then used the same striking hand to take hold of the front of the handle, before using the leverage to turn the bokuto around, releasing the blade as she did so. The result ended up with the young lady pointing the sharp end of the bokuto at the middle of the helper's throat, just below his chin.**_

 _ **Gulping a bit with a drop of sweat appearing on his forehead, the helper admitted his defeat. "I yield."**_

 _ **The twins then vocalized their awed reactions. "Woah!"**_

 _ **After returning the bokuto to the assistant, the older brunette turned to the two children and spoke to them with gentle eyes yet a firm tone. "Even if you were able to do that drastic version of the technique your immediate life will potentially vanish. And always remember-"**_

 **End of Memory #1**

* * *

" _ **\- this is a very**_ **STUPID** _ **move."**_

After hearing that final line, time for Atsuko returned to normal. And by normal, I mean, her remembering that she still held the flat of a Valkyrie blade in her bare hands. Oddly enough though, the vocal noises of the people around her were still a faint buzz. The brunette gripped onto the edges of the sword with both hands, allowing them to cut and bleed, mixing with the blood on one hand. _'Crap. Okay. Not the brightest thing in hindsight.'_

Feeling the Valkyrie trying to pull the blade from Atsuko's grip, the brunette, instead of letting go, went forward in a fluid motion, evidently surprising the golem. In its surprise, the golem had loosened its grip on the sword's handle which allowed Atsuko to yank the weapon away from its former owner then released the now bloodied blade to flip it about until she caught the handle with one hand. Instead of taking hold of the sword with both hands, Atsuko used the same hand to bring the weapon back slightly before throwing it, blade first, at the Valkyrie's chest, effectively wiping it out.

The brunette then stood at the ready behind her ferocious, sword wielding twin, having long realized that Saito had already taken care of the other golems and was now standing before Guiche, who had fallen on his rear in shock and slight fear, his head hung in defeat. Atsuko had noticed the couple of bruises on her twin.

With a firm voice, Saito questioned Guiche. "So? You want to continue?"

"I… I yield." Raising his head, Guiche looked at the twins with a pitiful expression. "To think that a Noble would lose to mere peasants…"

Once again, Atsuko blocked everything out of her hearing after Guiche had his say, and merely looked down at her hands, ignoring the small talk between Saito and Louise, who had ran up to him. Even with the blood flowing at slow pace from not only the two-day old wound beneath her ribs and the moderately deep gashes in her hands, the brunette felt no particular pain whatsoever. What she felt instead was confusion.

' _What… was that?'_

The face of the lady from the memory flashed for a moment.

Atsuko made a perplexed scowl. _'I haven't bothered to think of the past like that for the last three to four years. So, why now? There's no point…'_

Another memory flashed for her where the lady was giving a carefree smile to her as she turned her bloodied right hand, studying the Familiar insignia on the back, its glow long gone. She saw that there was a strange spacing between the second and third runic letters but thought nothing of it.

' _There's no point… right?'_

"—uko!" No response. "Miss Atsuko!" Again none, the girl continued to look at the insignia. "MISS ATSUKO HIRAGA!"

The dazed brunette finally responded, backing up half a step in her surprised as she looked right at Katie. "YES, MA'AM?!"

The young brunette Noble gave Atsuko a concerned look before catching sight of the older girl's bleeding hands, taking hold of them gently bringing them closer for inspection. To the taller brunette's mild surprise, the young mage didn't become squeamish in the slightest at the sight of her flowing flood, which confused Atsuko a bit. _'Not entirely the pampered little girl I had initially thought, huh?'_ Unbeknownst to her, Katie was actually taking note of the cuts on her hands along with the shirt concealed wound.

' _The ones on her fingers don't look so bad compared to the ones on her palms. They should heal quite nicely with proper treatment.'_ Katie then glanced over to Louise before taking a glimpse of the wet spot on Atsuko's shirt, just beneath her left ribs, her lips a thin line. _'_ That _one, however, is most certainly an anomaly. There's no telling how old it is, if it was recently obtained, or not. Perhaps I'll ask when they're more situa—'_

"HOLD UP! SAITO!"

Alarmed, Katie looked behind Atsuko, only to see a fainted Saito having fallen on top of Louise on the grass. Atsuko, unable to see her twin's unconscious face, began to panic a little as she called out to him in a fear she hadn't felt, much less thought of, for a long time. "S- SAI—!"

Before she could even finish calling his name, Atsuko started to stumble in her steps as her vision turned unstable, the images before her becoming blurry as her breathing slowly became labored. _'What— what is this—?!'_ Unable to keep her balance, the brunette began to tip onto her left, wincing as she was suddenly able to feel the pain of the gashes, and the opened wound, along with the abrupt exhaustion, all of them ramming her. Closing her eyes shut, Atsuko waited for the incoming grassed ground to hit, but when it never came, the brunette forced her tired, navy eyes open. What she saw, and felt with her tired body, was a small whirlwind holding up her body in a gentle manner as it slowly let her down onto the grass.

' _This wind…who's controlling it?'_ The fatigue brunette thought in question, but even as she tried, Atsuko could not move her head to look for the winds' master, she could only see through the small peripheral view of her sluggishly closing eyes. All she saw were the multiple black and brown shoes of the surrounding students…Atsuko did, however, catch sight of the bottom of a wooden staff just before completely blacking out.

"Miss Atsuko!"

* * *

 **Else where**

While the students began their awed wonder with Katie and Louise abrupt worry over the unconscious twins, in the top most floor of the academy's center tower was the office belonging to the Headmaster Osmond. There he stood in front of the office's large window with one of the most prominent professor of the academy's teaching staff, Professor Colbert, both looking away from a magical mirror which had shown them the fight between Guiche and the twins. The expressions they had were ones of surprise and confusion.

"O-Old Osmond!?" the bespectacled professor began stuttering. "The commoner Familiars actually won…"

"Hr~~m…" The old man hummed as he shook his head in complete wonder. "What great power… just what is that boy? And his sister…her runes seemed… _incomplete_?" Osmond turned to Colbert. "Are you sure they are just normal children?"

The balding teacher nodded in confirmation. "Yes. I confirmed with a "Detect Magic" just in case. But more importantly…I think we should report this to the Palace about the boy, at least, as soon—"

The headmaster franticly interrupted the professor. "WE WILL NOT! There is no need to yet!" The older mage turned, having walked behind his large oak desk, to look out the office window and spoke in a near somber tone. "It is still a complete mystery why the male Familiar of the two summoned by Miss Valliere became "Grandalfr"."

Colbert got closer to the front of the desk as he spoke. "The legendary Familiar said to have been used by the Founder himself: "Grandalfr". Its power… It can use every weapon and can defeat an army of one thousand by himself! Ordinary mages are no match for it."

"Exactly…" Osmond responded calmly. "That is why we will keep this case secret." Unbeknownst to the two men, the headmaster's green haired assistant, Longueville, was eavesdropping on their one-sided heated discussion through the slightly opened office doors in the want of hearing what the secret fuss was about. What she heard next from Professor Colbert had completely peaked her interest.

"This the biggest discovery of the century!" The bespectacled man rose his voice, in the hopes for the older mage to listen. "A "Grandalfr" in the modern world!"

The aged headmaster sighed before starting to explain to Colbert in an evenly tone. "Think carefully about it. What do you think will happen if we hand over the legendary Grandalfr and the Master to those fools at the Palace!? The court advisors have too much time on their hands and would like nothing better than to start a war with that power…" Osmond takes a breath before continuing, reassuring Colbert. "I will take care of this incident personally. No further objections."

"Y-Yes!"

All the while Longueville held a cool yet intrigued expression as she heard the last of the conversation.

* * *

 **At Louise's dorm room**

Now at Louise's dorm room, it seems that both Saito and Atsuko had been placed into Louise's now-slightly-cramped bed with the younger twin covered with bandages here and there and completely tucked with the blankets. His older twin sister's shirt had been removed, leaving only a midnight blue brazier, and had bandages covering her gashed hands and even more wrapped around her abdomen with a little swathing a bit of her ribs, both sets of bandages stained with blood. Unlike her brother, the blanket only covered Atsuko waist down with her bandaged hands over the fabric. One thing in common of their condition was their labored breathing.

"Thanks for levitating them up here." Louise said giving her thanks to Kirche and the bluenette, Tabitha, as they stood in the hallway just outside the pinkette's room.

"You know…you really shouldn't leave them like this." Said the redhead, indicating to the twins on the bed. "While the cutie doesn't really have any severe injuries and only fainted out of fatigue, at least get a water mage to heal his sister, considering how much worse her condition is."

Louise gentle shook her head. "I can't get a water mage to heal her…besides, Miss Ortega had volunteered in helping me take care of her. As for Saito, don't worry about him. He'll be fine after a good rest."

With her arms loosely crossed, Kirche reluctantly agreed. "Yeah…that's true…" The redhead then placed one hand behind her hips as she lifted one finger close to her lips with an adoring grin. "You're right. A nice long sleep should fix the boy in no time, since he's so strong and plus… wasn't he so cool and manly~~? His sister wasn't so bad either~~."

Louise gave Kirche a confused deadpanning look. "Haah!? Say what?"

Soon the redhead bombshell and her bluenette friend bid their goodnights as they left for their rooms, and now it was just the petite pinkette and the comatose twins in the room. Louise was barely getting a new fresh towel ready when she heard a knock on her door. "Yes?"

"Miss Valliere? It's me, Katie."

Quickly, the pinkette went to open the door, letting the young brunette in. "Oh! Come in! What did you bring?"

Katie brought up a small leather pouch, barely larger than her own hand, as a nervous smile graced her lips. "Um, well, it's a family healing tonic and ointment remedies, both made by my older brother. It's not as potent as the ones you'd normally buy at the market, but it usually does the trick, especially in _her_ case. It should help with her brother's fatigue, too."

"Thank you so much, Miss Ortega!" Louise said as she bowed her head in gratitude. "I am in your debt on this!"

Katie shook her head as she waved her hands, dismissing such a debt. "No, no, no! It's all alright!" The brunette then looked towards the bedridden teens, concern filled her eyes as her gaze landed on the older brunette. "Let's just hurry and treat her before she gets worse."

Louise gazed at the freshman. "Them."

"Huh?"

"You only said _"her"_ and _"she"_ , but not _"them"_ , or _"they"_."

"…" Katie sighed. "Let's… let's just get to work, please."

And to work they did get to. After the pinkette carefully gave a small dosage of the healing tonic to the younger twin, Louise made sure nothing went wrong in Saito's resting, aside from the occasional grunts and moans of sore fatigue, Katie began to untie the old bloody bandages on Atsuko's hand, one at a time. Making sure that each hand gash was wiped clean of any died blood before lightly covering them in the ointment, the light brunette firmly wrapped fresh bindings as she paid no heed to the quiet whimpers Atsuko made out of pain. After loosening the knot that tied the abdomen dressing, the little Noble whispered a silent levitation spell to make Atsuko's limp body float just a bit off the mattress, so that it could become easier to unwrap the gore-soaked bindings. Doing the same clean wiping movement around and over what appears to be a knife wound, at least two-days old, before applying an even thicker coating of the ointment. Once the salve was applied, Katie quickly wrapped up Atsuko's midriff in the same firm method as before, then gently drift the older girl's body back on the bed. During the entire process, the freshman kept a cool mask, with practiced ease.

 _'It's almost as if…'_ Louise mused thoughtfully, her rosy eyes glancing at the fifteen-year-old teen. _'She's done this before...'_

Sitting on their side of the bed respectively, the girls stayed silent with only Saito soft snores and Atsuko's labored breathing keeping them company. As she allowed her rosy pools to slowly go over the twins' sleeping faces, Louise then placed her head in her hands, fists covering her eyes, before muttering in inaudible worry, Katie sending her a sympathetic glance.

"Jeez…just how much trouble are you two going to put me through?" The pinkette took in a shaky breath before continuing. "Ignoring what I said on facing off against Guiche and you almost getting beat up… your sister gaining injuries and opening her old wound with minor blood loss…then both of you collapsing unconscious out of fatigue, leaving me, your master, to take care of your injuries…your even making Miss Ortega help me take care of you two!" Looking up with tears in her eyes, Louise sent the sleeping twins a half-attempted glare. "You're my Familiars, right!? So, hurry up and wake up soon, or else I won't forgive either one of you!"

Katie, however, had a simple question running in her mind. With confusion evident in her lavender eyes, the younger girl gazed at the sleeping brunette, who was whimpering for some reason in that moment. The memory of Atsuko's perplexed expression at her hand after the fight had flashed in the young Noble's mind. While others had seen a puzzled glare, Katie saw something else.

' _Why…why did you look so sad…Miss Atsuko?'_

* * *

 _A/N: HE~LLO~ PEOPLE! So, y'all probably already read (for those who were questioning about the twins weapon-wise), no, neither had no weapons whatsoever with them. Now, as for the next chapter upload, that's probably going to take three weeks instead of two._ _Thank You for your future patience!_

 _~foxluvur64_


	4. Chapter 4-Correct Reintroduction

Chapter Four: Correct Reintroduction

Previously on the Hiraga Twins…

 _ **Sitting on their side of the bed respectively, the girls stayed silent with only Saito soft snores and Atsuko's labored breathing keeping them company. As she allowed her rosy pools to slowly go over the twins' sleeping faces, Louise then placed her head in her hands, fists covering her eyes, before muttering in inaudible worry, Katie sending her a sympathetic glance.**_

" _ **Jeez…just how much trouble are you two going to put me through?" The pinkette took in a shaky breath before continuing. "Ignoring what I said on facing off against Guiche and you almost getting beat up… your sister gaining injuries and opening her old wound with minor blood loss…then both of you collapsing unconscious out of fatigue, leaving me, your master, to take care of your injuries…your even making Miss Ortega help me take care of you two!" Looking up with tears in her eyes, Louise sent the sleeping twins a half-attempted glare. "You're my Familiars, right!? So, hurry up and wake up soon, or else I won't forgive either one of you!"**_

 _ **Katie, however, had a simple question running in her mind. With confusion evident in her lavender eyes, the younger girl gazed at the sleeping brunette, who was whimpering for some reason in that moment. The memory of Atsuko's perplexed expression at her hand after the fight had flashed in the young Noble's mind. While others had seen a puzzled glare, Katie saw something else.**_

' **Why…why did you look so sad…Miss Atsuko?'**

 **Atsuko P.O.V. **

_Pit, pat, pit, pat._

 _Rain. Rain was falling._

 _The sky had rainclouds scattered about, but not totally covered._

 _The sun could be seen setting…it was twilight…_

 _Two bodies laid on the wet floor…_

 _One breathing, but unconscious. Saito._

 _The other…just barely alive…with an exploiting wound. Her._

 _Brilliant red... crimson red…_

 _Blood…so much was flowing…_

 _The blood…was going into the water on the concrete…_

 _Although I was carrying my broken right arm close to my body, I couldn't feel the pain— No… more like I wasn't allowing myself to feel it._

 _My breathing was slow and labored. I could see my breath as small puffs of steam. I sat on my knees, trembling, as my eyes focused on one body. Slowly, with unsteady strength, I crawled on my knees to get closer to that one figure, my breathing becoming more strenuous._

 _Once beside the fallen lady's side, I lift her head onto my lap with my one good arm._

 _I see her pale blue lips, once a rosy peach color, move, but her words were silent, evading me completely._

 _I tell her to be quiet, to save her strength. She simply smiled and raised one hand, caressing my cheek. Then with one last breath, she let her smile slip._

 _It wasn't the pain of my broken arm that made me scream…it was the immense agony of losing her…_

" _ **MOM!"**_

 **Present time**

"MOM!"

With a fearful jolt I had sat up, legs doing the "trying-to-get-the-fuck-away-from-something" motion thing beneath the covers, my breathing ragged as I gasped unsteady breathes, longs of caramel bangs clung to my forehead and the sides of my face due to sweat. I was shaking profusely, my navy eyes widened with painful panic as I took in my surroundings.

From what I could tell, I wasn't in Louise's room anymore, but I was still on Academy grounds, according to the weathered stone walls and the view of one side of said academy's main building as seen through this room's window. If the darkening sky and illuminating moons were anything to go by, it was well past evening. The room had no lamp lighting the place up, except for what came from the two moons, so it was a tad bit hard to see that said area was slightly smaller and simplistic in the furniture aspects.

The bed I awoke on was notably smaller than Louise's with no over-the-top canopy and bedposts, a single desk in one corner opposite of the bed with an average sized bookshelf-slash-cabinet a couple of feet or so beside the desk. Set closer to the room's door was a somewhat large dresser with a medium sized mirror propped up on it. Oh, did I forget to mention that the window and the bed are next to each other? Which means that the nightstand and desk (plus chair) are little less than a meter away from each other. That also mean that all the other furniture is opposite of the bed— well, no, actually, now that my sight's gotten used to the dim moonlight illuminated room, I can see that the dresser is actually placed several feet in front of the bed.

At some point during the analysis of the room, my heart rate began to slow to normal in turn my breathing becoming calmer, as for my tremors, they weren't as bad. Sighing, I held my face in my hands, feeling how wet and clammy it really was. _'Again'_ , I thought grumbling. _'This time as a damn dream…'_

Shaking my head in an attempt to calm myself, I look up and noticed that my jacket was placed on the desk across from me, folded rather neatly. Keeping my sights on that particular clothing, I removed the bed covers from me, standing up. Taking a couple of limping steps to the desk, I now look down as I held my pinkish brown jacket. I began to examine the jacket's surface with a blank stare, my hands feeling the soft yet durable fabric along with the small added weight of my phone.

As I observed the fabric, for what might as well be nothing, a small yet precious memory of the day that Saito and I had received our jackets. A week before our birthday, our older "sister" had given our jackets respectively as early birthday and apology presents, since she wasn't going to be out working the day of our birthday. That day, she gave us an apologetic smile along with the jackets that we never thought we would treasure for so long.

My jaws and hands clenched as my lips became a thin line, navy eyes squinted slightly as tears threaten to fall. "Mom..."

As soon as I let that slip, the room's door had creaked open, causing me to flinch lightly but I didn't look up. I did look up, however, when the whinny and annoying voice of Louise, or the joking yet worried (and annoying) tone that Saito uses every now and then with me did not reach my ears; instead I heard a pleasantly surprised and relieved voice.

"Oh! You're awake, Miss Atsuko!"

 **General P.O.V**

To Atsuko's later surprise, it was Katie who had entered the room. Closing the door behind herself, Katie stood in her uniform without her cloak and was carrying in her hands a tray of what might very well be that evening's dinner. The dinner consisted of a bowl of light beef stew, some salad, and a lightly buttered croissant with some fruit; a good meal. As Atsuko had yet to raise her head to face Katie, the older teen did not know that the younger brunette had begun to quietly observe the moonlit silhouette of Atsuko's lean profile as if with an unknown intrigue.

Katie quickly regained her composure. "You must be cold! Let me get your shirt." As if on que, a strong chill ran through Atsuko before sneezing sharply. Hurriedly, Katie set the tray on her desk next to the older caramel brunette before heading for her dresser and took what was on top, handing it to Atsuko. "Here, I had it washed since it got, you know, bloodied." The Hiraga was taken aback since she was not expecting anything really.

' _Wait … that's my shirt…'_ Atsuko's thought process in that moment was slow, sluggish even, from her deep sleep and shattering memory-like dream. Looking down at herself, with jacket still in hand, Atsuko saw that she was, in fact, shirtless. Thankfully though, she wasn't without her bra or pants. Along with wearing her bra as a top, Atsuko noticed that she had plenty of bandages wrapped around her abdomen, freshly replaced it seems. _'…so that's the reason that chill just now was so strong…'_ The Japanese teen looked back up at the Noble brunette, who held the black shirt with an expectant look, before taking hold of the shirt with one hand while setting her jacket down on the desk's chair with the other.

"…Thanks," Atsuko said, her voice a bit hoarse, as she looked down at the clothing before glancing up with her navy eyes. "…for everything."

Katie nodded as she releases the article of clothing, then leaned just a bit to her right as she turned to turn on the lantern that was settled near the middle of the desk. Meanwhile, Atsuko had been careful when putting on her shirt, due to the dull pain she was feeling movement, when Katie turned back to her. "Are you hungry? You must be, considering how long of a slumber you just awoke from. I could give you some of my dinner, if you'd like?"

The older teen was shaking her head 'no' when her stomach decided to make itself known with what was equivalent to a lion's growl. As the embarrassed blushed, the young mage chuckled. "Come on, let's eat."

Although Atsuko only wanted to eat the butter croissant from Katie's dinner tray, out of curtesy, the young Noble would not have it.

"At least eat half of the stew along with the croissant! …maybe some fruit and salad? And once you're done with your share, I'll eat the rest."

With Katie's insistence, Atsuko ate the minimum amount of the beef stew with the croissant, the fruits, and the salad, much to the Leone girl's satisfaction. Sometime later, Katie had finished her share of the meal and was about to leave the room to drop off the tray and dishes at the kitchen when Atsuko spoke up.

"Miss Katie? If you don't mid, could we visit my brother afterwards? I'd like to see how he's doing."

The young Mage was already at the door, tray in hand and cloak back on. Katie placed a finger on her chin and closed her eyes, tilting her head as if in thought. "Well, no one is in bed just yet, if anything, the other students have probably finished eating by now and are relaxing in either the student lounge, the library for light reading, or in their own rooms. As for your brother, he's been awake since this morning and I haven't had the time to check on him in terms of his recovered health, but I can do that tomorrow." She then hummed and opened her violet eyes, nodding. "Hmm…yeah, we can go see him."

"Thank you. Another thing," Atsuko, with her jacket on, had walked up to Katie, gesturing to take the tray to let the mage girl open the door. "When you said, "considering how long of a slumber", what do you mean? How long have we slept exactly?"

Katie hummed once again as she locked the door behind them the moment they stepped out in the hall. "Let's see…since your brother woke up this morning, that would mean he slept for roughly three day and nights." The young Mage then began to walk past Atsuko, glancing over her shoulder once as she continued. "As for you, Miss Atsuko, you slept for four whole days and three nights."

Atsuko nearly dropped the tray.

 **MAGICAL TIME SKIP**

' _Wasted,'_ the grim thought rumbled in her mind as she followed the freshman in front of her, looking for the dorm room that sheltered Louise, Saito, and Atsuko herself. _'Four days…and three nights…wasted… I could have used that time to search for a possible way home…'_

"Damn it…"

"Hn? Did you say something, Miss Atsuko?"

"Huh" Atsuko looks up at the girl in front of her, realizing one: she had said that one out loud, and two: Katie had walked high enough on the stone spiral staircase that Atsuko would be able to see what the young Mage wore under her skirt if the older teen bent down a bit… if it weren't for the brown cloak.

' _Wait,'_ the Hiraga girl's eyes widened as a large blush painted her cheeks. _'Did I just think that?!'_

"Miss Atsuko?" Katie tilted her head in question, adorably. "Are you alright? Your face is really red."

' _Wait! "Adorably"?!'_

"Um, uh, n-nothing!" Atsuko quickly looked away, avoiding Katie's searching violet gaze. "I didn't say anything, Miss Katie!"

Katie hummed then continued up the steps as the older brunette fiercely glared at her very feet which followed the young Mage up the stone steps, berating herself in a questioning manner. _'What- what is happening to me? I should have no reason to think that way, right? Then what's going on and why? God, I'm being real stupid…'_

Atsuko continued to question and mentally scold herself as she and the young Mage went up the steps, the twin did not realize that said Mage had sent a glance at the older teen over her shoulder, observing. Yet not a thought passed through her mind; except for one.

' _I wonder what's gotten her all flustered…'_

Soon enough the brunettes had found Louise's door, the two of them waited patiently after Katie had knocked. Atsuko began to get impatient and antsy when there was no response, so much so that she was in fact tempted to bang on the door. Fortunately, she heard someone call her from down the hall. "Atsuko!"

Looking to their right, where the end of the stairs was, the teens saw Louise and Saito walking towards them, Saito grinning like a happy puppy. Their Master, however, had a very strong scowl on, which thinned just enough for her to greet the freshman. "Good evening, Miss Ortega. Thank you for walking Atsuko back to my room. Would you like to come in for a bit before you go?"

"Oh, no, that's fine! I have to get up early tomorrow—"

As the Mages continued talking, Atsuko walked up to Saito and leaned against the same wall as he was, talking just low enough for only him to hear. "Saito, we need to talk."

As Saito's eyes were closed, he briefly opened one eye, glancing her way before closing. "Can't it wait 'til tomorrow? I'm hungry and really tired."

When the brunette twin didn't respond, Saito opened his eyes and looked at his sister, seeing her giving him an almost hollow, depressed look, not expecting she said next.

"I had that dream again, Sai-chan."

At first, Saito gave her a confused look before his eyes widen as he understood and remembered what Atsuko meant. _'Dream? What dream? Wait…oh- OH!'_ The little brother quickly sent a brisk nod to his older twin before interrupting the Noble girls' talking. "Um, Louise? My sis and I need to talk—"

"Then talk."

"Alone. In private. Outside." The young man then gave his Master a look, as if searching for understanding. "Please. It's something personal between us as family."

All the while, Katie was paying attention to the older brunette as the teen was simply staring mutely into nothing, as if considering something. The violet-eyed teen silently wondered what could be making Atsuko act so… _'So…melancholy…'_

With the way the youngest Familiar was looking at his Master, Louise caved in reluctantly, huffing before crossing her arms under her cloak. "Alright fine. Just be sure both of you come back before the teachers call lights out. Got it?"

Saito grinned with appreciation. "Right. Thank you." He turned to his sister. "C'mon, Atsuko. We can go talk by the fountain in the courtyard."

Atsuko merely pushed herself off the wall and walked behind her twin, without a word said to either their Master Louise or to Katie.

This left the freshman worried and confused, whereas Louise was just plain old confused.

On the way to the fountain, Saito filled the silence with his tales of the day, from how he awoke to the pleasing hello of a maid named Siesta to the very tricking bi-polar attitude belonging to Louise the moment she woke up herself; then the enjoyable visit paid to him by Siesta, Kirche, and the silent reading, bespectacled blue-haired Noble name Tabitha later in that day to Louise punishing him for no apparent reason. He had then later found out that day in the class he had attended Louise with why she had the title of "The Zero", after which Saito teased the pinkette to the extent that she had stripped him of one meal per "Zero" he had said… he said "Zero" four times. Four meals. Saito already missed that day's lunch and dinner with tomorrow's breakfast and lunch to go.

But the boy was still stuck on the fact that Louise had nearly blew him up.

"I mean— who does that?!" Saito's arms were stretched out in front of him as his face portrayed his outrage. "To almost blast a guy to smithereens on the same day he wakes up from what would normally be considered a coma for no apparent reason! NO ONE DOES THAT!"

As they reached the courtyard's fountain, its water no longer running for the night, Atsuko finally bothered to look her brother's way, a brow raised at his very obvious obliviousness and idiocy. "I don't think she did that for "No apparent reason", as you've put it."

"Ah, finally! The Silent One speaks!" Saito quipped with sarcasm out of good humor.

Atsuko ignored him. "Think about what happened today from a girl's perspective: You have a male acquaintance still resting, recovering in your room. You then had to leave the guy there for most of the day due to classes, not expecting people to actually visit him." The twins then sit down on one of the fountain's benches. The brunette twin continues. "Then you return to your dorm room, not only finding people visiting him, but those same people happen to be three girls. Not only that, those very same three girls are surrounding the supposedly resting male acquaintance, who at that moment would have a near lecherous grin plastered on his face, in YOUR (as a girl) room. Three girls, one guy, and all four in another girl's room."

Atsuko glances at Saito, taking in his embarrassed face as his navy eyes were looking at anywhere but his older twin's face, knowing full well how apathetically hollow her own navy eyes were. "I know we're siblings and all, but I constantly wonder; How many times you were dropped as a baby to get you to grow up like this?" Saito's embarrassed pondering turned into an embarrassed frown then a scowl as he turned to growl at his sister but could not say a thing as Atsuko continued with such a cold tone. "Saito, we siblings may have been born into one of the lower branch families of the Hiraga clan, but would it kill you to at least pay attention to the mood and atmosphere in the room a _little_ more? We both know that it would help from getting your ass whooped by girls."

The younger brother clicked his tongue, glancing away. He knew she was right but couldn't say so because of his pride. _'Stop. Leave this for another time. She wanted to talk about that dream.'_ He looked back at his sister, his tone no longer embarrassed as he no longer held a scowl. "You wanted to talk, Atsuko. So, talk."

The brunette twin looks at Saito with uneasy eyes before releasing breath with the same unease. Still not looking at him, Atsuko spoke at almost a whisper, slightly uneven. "Remember that dream I kept having for a while after… after b-Big Sister… died?" Atsuko's voice had dialed down to the point that Saito almost missed the last word. He caught it and nodded nonetheless. "The same dream that caused me to wake in the middle of the night, screaming and crying?" He nodded again. He knew where this was going. "Well… I had _IT_ again."

Quietly, Saito processed what his twin had just said before asking steadily. "Did it have the same realistic feeling?" Atsuko nodded. "Yeah. Everything felt so real… I could feel that day's rain hitting my skin, the back-alley stench invading my sense of smell, and the taste of blood from the cut in my mouth!" the brunette's navy eyes became wide and glazed over as if she was seeing it herself, her voice slightly giving way to old panic. "I-I could even feel the same dull pain in my-my right arm… S-Saito… I could sti-still feel her slip away!" Unbeknownst to the young teen, tears were pouring from her eyes, falling onto and staining the concrete floor beneath their feet.

Saito knew better than to give his sister a look of pity. She's always disliked the sense of pity. Even as a child, Atsuko saw no real logic in pitying others much less herself as she understood that having self-pity and giving pity wouldn't help anyone. She understood that even more so after what had happened to their older sister.

So, all the dark-haired twin could do for the only sister he had left and cherished was to wrap his arm around his twin's shoulders and bring her face into the crook of his neck, letting her cry freely, hidden from any prying eyes. Pressing a brotherly kiss against the crown of her head, Saito pet Atsuko's head in a soothing motion, letting her know it'll be alright.

Weeping silence reigned over the twins, neither spoke a word and there was no need to. They understood that in this new world, the twins only had each other and that they'll always have one-another, no matter what one says about the other.

That was all that need to be known between the two.

After Atsuko had calmed some from her crying, the two returned to their Master's room with one twin ready to fall into his haystack and sleep, while the other twin simply wants to enjoy the silence of the night as her brother and her Master slept. That didn't happen for a while, however, due to how Saito began to whine and pester Louise about his hunger. It worked…for a bit. Louise had decided to make an exception that once and forgive him. Saito would have gotten out of the rest of the punishment scot free, if it weren't how not only did he say "Zero" three times more but also make a joking jibe at the pinkette's small (none existent) breasts. Even Atsuko, who was making a point of trying to not listen to their conversation, cringed at her younger brother's insolence.

The boy ended up being forced to sleep out in the hallway…

' _Saito…you one dumbass idiot…'_

And somehow, her silence at the entire ordeal also lead to the sister being tossed out as well. "Wait!" Atsuko banged once on the door with a closed fist. "Why'd ya toss me outside too?!"

With her shrilly voice muffled by the closed door, Louise shouted her reply in a haughty tone. "You didn't try to stop your brother from embarrassing himself after I had lifted the punishment!"

Atsuko snarled lightly at the closed door, hoping- wishing even- that that same door was ajar to openly snarl at the pinkette. But that just wasn't the case for the brunette. Turning, Atsuko went and sat alongside with Saito on the haystack that Louise was so kind to suggest taking. With eyes closed and head resting against the wall behind them, the brunette sighed. Not out of exhaustion (the brunette already far too much sleep to be tired now, despite the amount of crying she had just done earlier) but simply out of aggravation.

Opening her eyes just a bit, the eldest twin glanced at her brother, seeing that he sat with his arms hugging them close to his chest and his head buried within his limbs gap. At first, Atsuko wasn't sure if she was seeing things, but she thought she saw Saito's shoulders shake ever so slightly, she even thought that she heard her brother's teeth chattering. With her brows furrowed upward, Atsuko was about to ask when she suddenly felt how chilly the hallway's air truly was, even though both she and her brother wore their jackets, causing her to shiver herself a bit.

' _Damn,'_ Atsuko began to rub her hands together, trying to ward off the cold. _'I didn't realize how cold it was starting to get.'_

"Saito," the brunette mumbles out to her twin, her voice low and shivers just a bit. "How are you right now?"

"I think I'll freeze to death before I starve to death!" the dark-haired twin exclaimed before whimpering rather pathetically. "So cold…so hungry…Atsuko…" The older twin's face remained the same with her brows still furrowed upward, her navy pools reflecting the pity she felt for her brother and the small frustration she felt against herself, gently wrapping her left arm around his shoulders for comfort and warmth. Atsuko was about to shut her eyes for the night when she heard someone stop in front of the them and a voice called to the twins. "Mister Saito? Miss Atsuko?"

The voice, soft and gentle as it was, belonged to a maid with dark hair fashioned in a bob-cut and wide, dark doe-like eyes, who wore a black maid dress and a white apron over it. Her face held the expressions of surprise and curiosity, as if she wasn't expecting to see either of them in that moment of that night.

 **MAGICAL TIME SKIP**

 **~Kitchen~**

Already the twins had taken their seats at the table of the servants' kitchen with Saito eating (more like wolfing down) what appears to be that evening's dinner leftovers whereas Atsuko took to a simple cup of tea and a buttered croissant while the kitchen staff and Siesta standing around them and watching them with what appear to be proud smiles. A large, burly man of light tanning, hairy arms, squarely-cut beard and the bushiest brows Atsuko's ever seen before, was the kitchen's head chef, who to the brunette's surprise, apologized over a trivial matter, with his voice strong and followed by a booming laugh.

"I'm sorry they're leftovers, but eat as much as you want, Our Sword and Our Voice!"

Confused, the twins stopped their chewing and drinking respectively to look up at the chef, Saito voicing their question with a full mouth. "Our Sword and Our Voice?"

Atsuko had grimaced lightly at her twin's lack of etiquette. _'Eat or chew. Choose one or the other, Saito, not both at once! That's disgusting!'_

The chef nodded, a large, almost fatherly grin adorned his face as proud as he can be. "That's right. You and your sister there are Peasants like us, but you two won the duel against that snobby Noble boy. Your sister here even gave that boy one hell of a tongue lashing! You twins are the pride of the Peasants, Our Sword and Our Voice!"

Saito looked up into empty space as he held his spoon and bread, having a slightly confused look as he tried to remember what happened. "Mm…When I held that sword, my body just moved on its own from past teachings, and it didn't hurt until after the fight. In terms of the pain, I have no idea what was going on."

The chief chef faced the rest of the staff. "Did ya hear that? A true master is like this- never boasting! This is where Our Sword is different from those stupid Nobles!" He then held his bearded chin, smiling. "I expected nothing less!"

The male staff members echoed the man in agreement. "Nothing less!"

The male twin looked down at his spoon with a light frown. "But do they always eat stuff this tasty? Damn…" He looks over to his sister before asking, "What about you, Atsuko? What do you think of all that happen in the fight?"

Atsuko, whose mind had wonder in that duration, came to mind with teacup in hand and saw that the rest of the staff were watching and waiting with baited breath. Looking down at the liquid in the cup, the brunette's own face showed a small perplexed frown as she thought back to the fight. "Well," she began, loud enough for the slightly crowded kitchen staff to hear. "To be fair, Saito, you already have gained a bit of knowledge in terms of Our people's swordplay, considering what the main and lower branches of our family do as a business, so that wasn't surprising when I saw you swing the first strike." The staff people around them gave Atsuko a confused look as she continued with her own chin held by her runic hand. "As to the little tidbit concerning the jetlag of your body's pain … I have no clue as to what caused that. However, in my case…" the older twin stopped as she brought her runic hand into view, her confused frown becoming more evident. "My body moved with much more purpose after I saw an old memory."

Saito's brows furrowed downward a bit while one of the male staff spoke up with what sounded like a red-neck country accent. "After you saw a' ol' mem'ry? What'cha mean?" Atsuko, without moving her head at all, glanced up from her cup of tea and took in the image of the young man, a valet, who asked the question. The young man seemed slightly taller than Saito with a light build and an almost olive complexion with a headful of dull lavender colored hair, complete with a small left-centered widows-peak, a braid to the left of his face, and a slightly wild mullet, along with a pair of neutral green eyes and a beauty mark at the bottom-right corner of his lips. He wore the Academy's valet uniform, which consisted of a white dress-shirt with a yellow sash tied around his neck under the shirt's collar, a dark brown vest thrown on with what appears to be a white apron tied around his waist where his shirt appears to be tucked into the waistband of his pair of dark brown pants, while wearing a pair of white calf-high socks and a pair of what look like brown loafers. "If ya don't mind me askin' that is?"

The caramel brunette twin remained quiet as her navy eyes returned to the honey-colored liquid in her cup, watching her barely visible reflection before answering with a somewhat cryptic reply. "No, I don't mind. But since it is a memory from long ago, you wouldn't know about it."

The young valet raised a single brow up in question before he got slapped upside his head by the head chef. "C'mon now, Jesse! There's no need to be digging up their pasts'!"

"OW! That smarts, ol'man Marteau!" the valet whined, rubbing the tender spot on his head. This routine between the two caused everyone in the kitchen to chuckle, Saito going along while Atsuko merely gave a small smile. Marteau then puffed his chest out in pride before crossing his burly arms as he spoke with a proud grin. "Anyways, when it comes to me, Marteau the Head Chef, anything will end up tasting exquisite! This is magic in and of itself."

Saito swallowed the food in his mouth before agreeing. "You're right! I've never had stew this tasty before!"

Atsuko nodded while smiling gently as she gestured to the cup of tea in her hands. "I'd have to agree! Even this tea tastes delicious, almost as if you had handpicked the herbs and mixed them yourself!"

The burly man gives a boisterous laughter as he then stood behind the twins, placing his arms on their respective shoulder. "A good man and a good lass! Saito, you really are a good man! And Atsuko, Our Voice, the praise you give to this old fool is very much appreciated!" Then looking only at Saito. "I like you, Our Sword! Please, let me kiss you!" Marteau then leaned in with his lips puckered to give the younger twin a kiss, which was held off by Saito as he _politely_ shoved the older man's face away with quite the struggle. "I'll hold off from being called that, and the kiss!"

With Marteau now moved slightly away from Saito, his burly arms releasing the twins, and the dark-haired twin slightly huffing, the head chef once again held a proud expression on his face. "Such modesty. As expected!"

During the entirety of the humorous situation, Atsuko had merely chuckled before finishing the rest of her tea as the lavender-haired valet shook his head with a close-eyed smile, as if completely used to his boss's antics. The caramel brunette then stood up before walking up to Marteau, the man laughing at the antics he had displayed, his laughter coming to a halt as he noticed the elder twin before him. "Our Voice! Is something the matter?"

Atsuko shook her head before giving a gentle smile as she spoke loud and clear, holding eye contact with respect as she was taught. "Nothing is the matter, Mr. Marteau. Simply that I wish to reintroduce myself, and by extension Saito, correctly." Just as Marteau was about to say otherwise, the brunette continued. "Please, allow me to explain. Ever since we were children, Saito and I have been taught not only by our parents, but our older sister as well, that it is always important that one speaks loud and clear, holds eye contact, and regards the other with common courtesy and respect, no matter the social standing one might have. That includes introducing one's self, of which my dear little brother Saito seems to have forgotten in his much understandable course of hunger." At that, Atsuko had sent a glance back at the younger twin which caused the boy to chuckle nervously as he nodded in agreement, standing up and stood beside his sister.

"Atsuko is right. This is something we were taught as children and I foolishly forgotten of such teachings." Without realizing, both twins looked up at the chef with similar seriousness as they spoke in unison. "Please, allow us to introduce ourselves properly this time!" And so, Marteau allowed them to do so as an even prouder grin took over. "Very well!" The man then faces the rest of the kitchen staff members. "Everyone! Gather to hear their reintroductions!"

With the rest of the staff gathered behind the kitchen table with the young valet (presumed to be called Jesse) and the head chef standing off to the side, watching the twins. Both facing the staff, Atsuko introduced herself first, a gentle smile present. "I am Hiraga Atsuko, the oldest twin."

Then it was Saito's turn, a carefree grin visible. "And I am Hiraga Saito, the youngest twin."

Together, the twins respectively bowed as they spoke in unison. "It is nice to meet you all! Please guide Us as we continue to live here!"


	5. Chapter 5 Pt 1- A Bastard

_Hello~ people~! I am not dead! This story is not dead! I just had a lot on my plate as of late. Originally, I was planning on posting this chapter as the normal 12 to 13 page chapter, but I decided to split it into two parts. Mostly so that I don't get mobbed with torches and pitchforks. Tidbit about the character Katie... she isn't the no-last-named background-slash-supporting character I previously thought she was. Her name is in fact Katie de la Lotta. But I'm not going to change that, so~ yeah! enjoy!_

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Chapter 5: Surprise pt.1: A Bastard

 _Previously on the Hiraga Twins…_

 _ **During the entirety of the humorous situation, Atsuko had merely chuckled before finishing the rest of her tea as the lavender-haired valet shook his head with a close-eyed smile, as if completely used to his boss's antics. The caramel brunette then stood up before walking up to Marteau, the man laughing at the antics he had displayed, his laughter coming to a halt as he noticed the elder twin before him. "Our Fist! Is something the matter?"**_

 _ **Atsuko shook her head before giving a gentle smile as she spoke loud and clear, holding eye contact with respect as she was taught. "Nothing is the matter, Mr. Marteau. Simply that I wish to reintroduce myself, and by extension Saito, correctly." Just as Marteau was about to say otherwise, the brunette continued. "Please, allow me to explain. Ever since we were children, Saito and I have been taught not only by our parents, but our older sister as well, that it is always important that one speaks loud and clear, holds eye contact, and regards the other with common courtesy and respect, no matter the social standing one might have. That includes introducing one's self, of which my dear little brother Saito seems to have forgotten in his much understandable course of hunger." At that, Atsuko had sent a glance back at the younger twin which caused the boy to chuckle nervously as he nodded in agreement, standing up and stood beside his sister.**_

" _ **Atsuko is right. This is something we were taught as children and I foolishly forgotten of such teachings." Without realizing, both twins looked up at the chef with similar seriousness as they spoke in unison. "Please, allow us to introduce ourselves properly this time!" And so, Marteau allowed them to do so as an even prouder grin took over. "Very well!" The man then faces the rest of the kitchen staff members. "Everyone! Gather to hear their reintroductions!"**_

 _ **With the rest of the staff gathered behind the kitchen table with the young valet (presumed to be called Jesse) and the head chef standing off to the side, watching the twins. Both facing the staff, Atsuko introduced herself first, a gentle smile present. "I am Hiraga Atsuko, the oldest twin."**_

" _ **And I'm Hiraga Saito, the youngest twin!"**_

 _ **Together, the twins respectively bowed as they spoke in unison. "It is nice to meet you all! Please guide Us as we continue to live here!"**_

 **Atsuko's P.O.V.**

After Saito and I had reintroduced ourselves properly to the kitchen staff, I was about to make my way for the kitchen's back exit to either head back to Louise's dorm room or sit up against one of the many walls of the Academy and just silently watch the two moons until I slept, however neither was going to happen as Head Chef Marteau called out for me. "AH! Atsuko, are you about to leave already?"

Turning my head to look at the old man over my shoulder, I nodded with my reply. "Yes. Why you ask?"

The burly man rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment with an equally embarrassed smile visible on his face. "Well, it's just that… just before you and your brother had come here, we received an order of tea for a pair of students from the Academy's library-"

' _I got a feeling where this is going.'_ I mused to myself before sighing. "Couldn't you have one of the staff members take care of it?"

"That's the problem." Marteau continued, not minding the small interruption. "You see, the staff and I still have to take care of several clean up jobs around the kitchens' and cafeteria at the moment."

I raised a single brow. "C'mon, Chef Marteau, surely one of the staffs can do this order? What about Siesta, or even Lavender-Head?" I didn't miss how the same valet boy had stiffened at the word _'lavender'_ but relax during the word _'head'_.

Marteau rubbed the back of his neck as he gave me an embarrassed chuckle. "Yes, well, I had already promised Siesta that she could have a few minutes alone with Saito to talk to him, if you hadn't minded that is? -" I gently shook my head. "As for our boy Jesse-" Once again, my navy eyes notice the particular valet twitch just a tiny bit at the name _'Jesse'_. "I'm having him take some supplies to the Student Kitchen to restock."

I gave the Head Chef a deadpanning look. "Miss Siesta's like a daughter, while Mister - uh- Jesse's a son to you, aren't they?" The brawny man had chuckled with unashamed pride when I perked up as his last sentence finally caught up to my ears, me remembering my first real encounter with a certain violet-eyed Noble girl. "Isn't the library within the same hallway as the Student Kitchen?"

Marteau nodded as I held my chin with my runic hand in thought. _'If I take on this little task, then maybe the pair of students who had placed the order are, per se, "kind" enough then perhaps I could ask either one of them to teach me how to read and write this world's language- or at least this country's language- that is if the language here really is different.'_

"Yeah, sure, I can do it." I gave my affirmation. "If at all possible, could I have Mister Jesse lead me to the library at least?"

"Sure!" The aforementioned young man was walking up to the two of us with sleeves rolled up just a bit, as if getting ready for labor, he spoke with his thick country accent. "I could take ya ta the Library's doors, but then I'd hav'ta leave ya since I gotta take care of the Student Kitchen's restockin'. That a'ight with ya?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's fine with me. By the way, is the tea order ready to go, Chef Marteau?"

"Of course! The tea mix is a combination of dried pomegranate and lavender, and there should be a small pot of orange-blossom honey. Oh! And don't forget that the tea-water is piping hot, so please do warn the two students on that part."

I nodded with my understanding before a thought popped up. "But how will I know which two students are of the order? Shouldn't there be more than just those two in the library?"

One of the other valets, who were helping Jesse load up the stock cart, spoke up. "Actually, aside, from those two students, and maybe one teacher, there won't be anyone else there. If anything, the other students and teacher staff have probably hit the sack by now."

Jesse nodded as he settles a cargo box down. "M'pal here's right on that, missus." The lavender-haired boy grunted as he stretched backwards, effectively popping his back for the moment. Straightening himself, Jesse laid his neutral green eyes on me, expectancy filling them. "Anyway, shouldn't we get goin' now?"

I nodded as I sent him deadpan stare. "Sure. Let's go." I then turned to my twin, giving him my heads-up for Louise. Taking hold of the tea-cart, I followed Jesse out the front kitchen door, having already bid a good-night to the rest of the kitchen staff. As the lavender-haired valet and I pushed our respective carts, a thick blanket of silence enveloped us as we continued down the hallway. My navy eyes kept on stealing glances of Jesse from my peripheral view, it wasn't until we had turned left after that long hallway that I spoke up, careful that my voice didn't echo off the walls.

"' _Jesse'_ isn't your real name, is it, Mister?"

I immediately felt like banging my face against the wall, although I showed no such hint of that particular want, as I heard the valet-boy's cart come to a screeching halt. _'Why did I have to ask that so bluntly?!'_ I had come to a stop to look back at the fellow with a well-crafted poker face, which allowed me to see that his face had gone pale with a surprised and fearful expression in place. His deep olive-green eyes then narrowed as his lips parted, letting an even yet quiet voice slip out in question with a soft drawl.

"What in the world are ya talkin' 'bout?"

With my navy eyes keeping hold with his olive ones, a sense of guard was very much there. A tense almost choking period of silence reigned over the two of us as we continued to stand in the middle of the hall's path. I broke that silence as we continued to stare down each other, my voice steady as my tone was neutral.

"No need for the questions that beat around the bush. It wasn't hard to notice the way you had sent Mr. Marteau deadpanning looks, as well as how you had twitched, ever so slightly I might add, whenever your boss called or addressed you as _'Jesse'_." I focused my sight on how _'Jesse'_ reacted before looking away, ready to push my cart forward. "If your dilated eyes have anything to say, it is that your heartrate has increased, and that _'Jesse'_ isn't your real name."

Silently, I stood with my back to the valet, waiting for a response, only to hear a single huff before the sound of his cart's wheels beginning to move. "Even though ya're right 'bout my name," the boy said in a low tone as he stopped beside me, but not looking at me. "Keep this in mind that I don't trus' ya enough to tell y'all my real name. It's nothin' personal. Jus' don't expect to hear it any time soon."

And with that, _'Jesse'_ went on to push his cart in front of me, leaving me to tail him as I had a small pout on my face. "Alright, fine! Have it your way." _'Not like I wanted to know your name anyway!'_

Silence thickened between us once again as Jesse lead me to the library's doors and leaving me there, but not before reminding me to give caution to the two students regarding the tea-water temperature. "Yeah, yeah. I remember, _Mister Jesse_."

Whether he noticed the sarcasm or not, Lavender-Head simply nodded and continued down the hall towards the Student Kitchen. Taking a quick breath, I opened the door a bit just to peek inside, only seeing an enormous number of shelves and shelves of books with said shelves reaching up to the library's ceiling, sturdy, ample wooden catwalks going in between shelf walkways with a few staircases here and there leading to different pathways. If one were to look closer, you'd be able to see that the door-level floor wasn't the only floor with both circular and rectangular tables placed about. When my navy eyes had located the only two students in the room, I had realized that said students were settled at a rectangular table on what I believe would be considered a second-floor catwalk, which immediately made me think: _'Fuck…'_

Regardless of that catwalk's location, I began the walk up the steps after quickly getting the teapots and cups along with a bowl of sugar-cubes, a small pot of honey, and a smaller pitcher of cream onto a tray.

Soon I had reached that catwalks' platform, I made my way over to the two students at their table and was able to see what they looked like. I immediately recognized them as they were the large bosomed redhead (what's her name again?) and the tiny, bi-spectacled bluenette duo, the same girls from Louise's year. _'Wait, wasn't the redhead the one with a FIRE-BREATHING overgrown salamander as her pet?!'_

The redhead, sitting at the head of the table, had her head laid on an open book, looking absolutely beat with her brown eyes closed with drowsiness while the spectacled bluenette sat to her right, fervently read the book she held in her small hands, her light blues going left-to-right as if trying to swallow any valuable information that the pages could provide.

' _Oh…'_ "…It's you two."

The redhead jerked her head as if she was startled awake, stupor very much present in her dazed golden-brown eyes, while the blue-head girl glanced my way, humming before diving her nosed back into the pages if the book once again. As I settled the tray on the table, the redhead regained her full consciousness which allowed her to notice her surroundings even more. While I poured the girls their tea, the redheaded bombshell began to talk to me.

"Oh! You're one of Louise's Familiars! The one who hid behind that boy so cutely when you saw my sweet Flame! What are you doing so far from her?"

Ignoring that one "cutely" part, I dropped one sugar cube into the bluenette's cup, per her request, keeping the answer short as possible while I stirred the tea. "I'm simply doing a favor for Chef Marteau in return for feeding my little brother and I so late in the evening. Saito went to tell the Lil' Lady that I'll be returning a little late."

The redhead hummed. "Hn~ Well, allow me to introduce myself- properly this time. My name is Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, but you can call me _'Kirche'_." Lending her hand and looking in the bluenette's direction. "And this is Tabitha, a friend of mine." She then set her eyes on me as she sent a pleasant smile. "As for you, what should we call you? I feel like I should be calling you _'Little Kitten'_."

After leaving the various condiments along with the teapot on the table, I held the tray beneath my arm. "I prefer that you wouldn't be calling me that, Miss Zerbst. My proper name is Hiraga Atsuko, so I guess you can just call me _'Atsuko'_. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll need to return the tray and cart to the kitchen staff before they lock up." Softly bowing my head, I took my leave.

"Alright, see you later then, _Little_ Atsu~ko~!"

An inexplicable chill ran through me at that moment as I thought of one thing. _'Yeah, I'm not asking them to teach me…'_

 **General P.O.V.**

The caramel brunette was now walking the field towards her Master's dorm after having returned both tray and cart to the kitchen when she stopped in her steps. She then looked up at the two moons that floated in the star-filled sky, their respective lights of pale blue and pale pink shining, giving a soft glow to the teen's surroundings. The young teen held a sort of neutral frown on her face, Atsuko's navy eyes narrowing just a bit as she placed her right hand on her healing wound under her left ribs, hidden by her shirt and jacket.

A small scowl appeared on her lips.

' _I don't want to stay here…I need to find a way home! Or else, everything that I snuck around for will be ruined!'_ Gently shaking her head, Atsuko continued her way towards the dorm tower and up the various steps to her Master's room. She was careful in quietly opening and closing the door once she got there, noticing how dark the room was except for the soft moonlight that wafted in through the window. Still deep in thought, the caramel-brunette leaned next to the window glancing at a sleeping (more like snoring) Saito, and the bed where Louise now slept before looking out the hole-in-the-wall. _'As much as I want to get back home, I need to be patient… and I need to be detached from the people here… emotionally… or else my opportunity will slip by…'_

After standing at the window for a few minutes, sighing softly Atsuko tiptoed to her hay bed next to her twin and laid down. With her back towards Saito, slowly, the brunette began to close her eyes as sleep took over.

'… _and I don't intend to make that blunder…'_

The next morning, the teen twins now stood before their Master, having been awaken by her earlier, sitting on the edge of her bed still in her pink night gown. Between them and her, was a large basket that Atsuko (still slightly drowsy) saw was filled with unwashed dirty laundry. _'Blue-bloods really don't wash their own clothes, huh.'_

Covering up a yawn, the brunette listened to her dark-haired twin and their pinkette charge, said pinkette giving a sort of explanation to Saito's questioning. "What is this?"

"It's the laundry that piled up while you two were bedridden after doing something very stupid." She looked at her older Familiar. "Atsuko, do stop yawning like that or else I'll really start calling you _'Cat'_ instead."

The brunette glowered at the young Noble while Saito made an exclamation. "All of this?!"

"Of course." Was her simple answer. Atsuko just continued to listen, being far too drowsy to even consider becoming part of the conversation. Eventually, the older twin simply shut the discussion out completely. Stretching herself, Atsuko not only felt her back give quite a few satisfactory pops, but she also felt her wound give signs of opening up again, making her stop her stretches with a pained flinch. The pain made her become conscious of the words being passed between the other two, much to her distaste.

Louise flopped down on her bed in a sort of pin-up doll fashion, holding her head with one hand as her pink eyes closed. "A Master takes good care of her Familiar- or Familiars, in this case- as a matter of course." Opening her eyes, she sent a _'duh'_ look at the youngest twin. "In the first place, a Familiar should always have a feeling of thanks towards their Master, no?" She then noticed Atsuko's apparent discomfort. "Hey, what is it with you?"

Atsuko wanted to snap but didn't feel like dealing with crap in the morning. "It's nothing." She starts walking to the door. "I'm going to go get some fresh air. I'll be back in time to help Saito with the rest of the chores that you are too lazy to do yourself." And with that, the brunette ran out of that room before Louise decided to yell at her.

Having been taking two then three steps down the stairs, the young brunette made it to the dorm's sunshine-bright entryway, stepping out as she panted, taking in her breath. At one-point Atsuko took a large gulp of air, which emphasized the small pain from her bandaged wound. With one wince, Atsuko brushed the pain off and walked out into the fresh morning air, head held high with navy eyes scanning the sun lit area. The sun had risen over the mountainous horizon giving the dewy grass a shine over with its light.

With her hands in her jean pockets, Atsuko walked away from her Master's dorm tower, entering the hallway of the main building that she thought lead to the main kitchen for something quick to eat…although she couldn't find said kitchen, what she found instead was a sight that made her blood boil.

Students bullying another student.

More specifically, four girls towering over another girl who was more like caving-in on herself in mortal fear rather than just cowering in general fear. They were all huddle against a hallway wall to the right of the T-crossroad, whereas Atsuko stood in the left hallway of the T-road. Two of the girls where charcoal-grey haired (probably twins), another was a strawberry-blonde while the last bully had greyish-green hair. The dark-haired twins were freshmen, while the blonde was a junior, and the greenette was a senior according to their cloak colors. Although it was slightly difficult to see her, Atsuko could tell that the victim was a brunette of an oddly familiar shade.

It's a disgusting and dishonorable act if Atsuko's have ever seen (on both ends, in the brunette's opinion), and normally she would have a sense of second-hand discomfort and try to help the victim, then be on her way. However, what she felt in that moment was not the normal second-hand discomfort, nor the general disgust that came with being a bystander, what she felt instead was… anger. While she was subconsciously questioning herself exactly why she felt that particular emotion, the older Hiraga twin's eyes narrowed dangerously at the girls as she scowled lightly before looking down the hall behind her and the one to her persons' right, then the one where the five girls were in. Seeing that all three were practically vacant for the exception of herself and the other girls, Atsuko went back down the hall that she came from, made a U-turn, then stood as close as possible to the right-turn corner without being seen to watch and quietly listened in on what was being said. As to what was said, well…

"My, oh my! Would you look at this, girls? It's the little bunny who got our precious Guiche exposed!" The greenette said, sneering at the apparently smaller brunette victim, who spoke not a word as she kept her head down.

"How could you get him exposed like that, you damn good-for-nothing?" One of charcoal-grey haired (twins) demanded as she shoved their victim against the wall, making the girl squeak.

When the brunette said nothing afterwards, the other twin seemed to have gotten annoyed and lashed out, starting to smack the scared and trembling girl around. "Hey! Answer already, you little bitch! My sister asked you a question!"

From where Atsuko stood, the seventeen-year-old was slowly finding it hard to calm her anger and was about to step in if it weren't for the strawberry blonde speaking up, surprising the Hiraga as she had initially thought that there was no voice of reason among the girls.

"Girls, don't you think that that's enough?" The strawberry-head pleaded to the other three girls, a small concerned scowl appearing on her face. She then turned to the greenette as she implored her. "Lisa, there's no point whatsoever in doing this to Miss Ortega. What happened, happened! You need to let it go."

' _Wait…Ortega?... Wouldn't that be Katie?'_

The greenette, Lisa, looked at the strawberry girl with what Atsuko could only assume was a seething glare. "Era! Are you jesting with me right now? You want me to let go over what she did to our precious Lord Guiche?! You must realize that we have to restore his Honor!"

Atsuko snarled as she realized, _'This bitch is absolutely crazy…'_

Era raised her arms quickly as she briefly looked up at the ceiling, huffing in agitation. "For the love of GOD! LISA! You and I both knew that _this_ was going to happen sooner or later! And, by the way, if you ask me, what happened four days ago was probably the best thing that could have ever happened. If anything, this could have finally fixed that pathetic casa nova complex of his! Besides, what happened wasn't Miss Ortega's fault at all, and you know that."

Lisa flared. "HOW _DARE_ YOU, ERA!? Why are you even defending this bitch? And why are you even calling her Noble family name? She's a bunny taken in by a family of lions! She is the bastard of a Commoner _whore_!"

Atsuko's eyes widened, careful not to gasp. _'Katie's a bastard?! No way…'_


	6. Chapter 6 Pt 2- Questions and Favors

**Chapter 6: Surprise pt. 2: Questions and Favors**

 _Previously on the Hiraga Twins…_

 _ **Era raised her arms quickly as she briefly looked up at the ceiling, huffing in agitation. "For the love of GOD! LISA! You and I both knew that this was going to happen sooner or later! And, by the way, if you ask me, what happened four days ago was probably the best thing that could have ever happened. If anything, this could have finally fixed that pathetic casanova complex of his! Besides, what happened wasn't Miss Ortega's fault at all, and you know that."**_

 _ **Lisa flared. "HOW DARE YOU, ERA!? Why are you even defending this bitch? And why are you even calling her Noble family name? She's a bunny taken in by a family of lions! She is the bastard of a Commoner whore!"**_

 _ **Atsuko's eyes widened, careful not to gasp.**_ **'Katie's a bastard?! No way…'**

* * *

 **General P.O.V.**

One of the dark-haired twins started to step in, becoming a bit uncomfortable with where this was going. "Lisa, stop that! It's not right calling anyone a bastard, nor is it right calling her mother a…!"

"…care…back…"

The arguing girls looked down at their victim, the brunette no longer trembling in fear instead she started to tremble in rising anger. With her square-cut bangs creating a shadow over her eyes, Katie spoke up with her voice breaking as she tried to not raise her voice. Lisa began to get impatient and shoved the brunette Noble's shoulder. "Hey, speak up, you little bunny bitch!"

Brows furrowed as Katie steady her voice to speak firmly as she raises her head and stared into Lisa's deep green eyes, her own violet eyes flashing just briefly as a single tear threatened to fall. "I said, I don't care what you say about me, but take back what you said about my mother! Let you be damned if I hear you call my mother a _'whore'_ ever again!"

Shocked silence ensued. The twins began to fidget nervously, glancing at each other as they weren't entirely sure what to do in this situation while the strawberry-blonde felt a small drop of perspiration slip on her cheek as she too sent a concerned glance to her greenette friend. Said greenette was mute, her body still, and her eyes glazed with an indiscriminate dislike of the younger Noble. Lisa's lips, however, formed into a rather scary grin.

"Really? I'll be _'damned'_ , huh?" Her voice was low and more than just mocking.

Katie gulped. Era stiffened while the twins huddled together, whimpering in fear. The senior greenette took hold of Katie's shirt collar, nearly strangling her. "Well, it seems the little bunny needs to learn a lesson…"

She raised an open palm in a threatening manner. "Maybe then you will think twice before trying to damn me!"

Just as Lisa was about to slap Katie across the cheek, a shout rang out throughout the hallways, stunning the girls. "Professor Colbert! Miss Ortega is in trouble! Some girls are ganging up on her!"

Lisa released the freshman and turned to Era with a scowl. "What the hell, Era?! I thought you told me that Baldy wasn't going to be passing through these halls at this hour?!"

Katie had already slid onto the floor, gasping for air, when the strawberry-blonde replied slightly panicked. "I did! And I'm sure that my information is correct!" She began to take steps in the opposite direction from the shout. "Even if that isn't the case, I'm not risking getting caught bullying one defenseless girl because of your pettiness!" Era began running off. "You can bite my head off about this later! I'm going to go get ready for breakfast. See ya!"

"Hurry, Professor! Before they get away!"

Hearing not only the shout a second time but the sound of running footsteps coming in their direction caused the dirty-blondes to fold, turning to run after the junior girl.

"Hold up! Wait for us, Era!"

"Professor! They're getting away!"

"H-Hey! Wait for _me_ , Sis!"

Lisa scowled as she sucked her teeth. Before she began to run after the girls, she glared down at Katie, who sat on the floor, and spat onto the freshman's face, landing on her left cheek. After the bullies completely left, Katie breathed a shaky sigh of relief, wiping some of the spit off, as Atsuko calmly stepped out from the corner she hid behind. The older brunette smirked as she continued to mock them in a low shout.

"Oh, no! They ran away like little bitches!"

Chuckling, Atsuko stood before Katie, shaking her head. Looking down at the Noble girl, the caramel Hiraga was about to give her a small smile in comfort when she remembered about Lisa spitting on Katie. Frowning, Atsuko's navy eyes narrowed slightly as she knelt and began to rub away the remainder of the foreign fluid from the cheek, making Katie close and open her left eye with the motions.

As she was so focused on the task at hand, Atsuko did not notice the small faint blush coating the younger girl's face. Katie, herself, wasn't aware why she was blushing, but tossed it to the back of her mind when Atsuko began to question her wellbeing.

"Are you alright, Miss Ortega?" Navy eyes met violet eyes, deep oceans softly caressing lilac-colored flowers. "Are you hurt any–?"

"How much…how much did you hear?"

Atsuko knew what Katie was talking about, and thus responded honestly…

"I guess from about when that one crazy green-haired chick blatantly accused you of exposing that Guiche for his own womanizing ways up until she reminded the other girls with her that you are actually a bastard child of a Nobleman, taken in by said Nobleman's family." Atsuko then rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, as she knew what she just said was rather blunt. "So…um, yeah…basically all of it."

"You're… you're not disgusted?"

Blinking once then twice, then three times, Atsuko looked at Katie with wide-owl eyes before opening her mouth, responding with adamance and little confusion. "Why in the ever-loving hell would I be disgusted? Better question yet: WHO would I be disgusted with?! _You_?! Just because your sire didn't, or rather probably couldn't, do right by your mother?"

Shaking her head rather harshly, Atsuko took hold of one of Katie's wrist as she stood up, making the younger brunette stand with her, and walked from those halls, in the direction of the main kitchen in silence. With how thick and heavy the silence was, it was evident that both girls wanted to drop that subject for a while. Once they reached the kitchen's back door, Atsuko turned to Katie, asking her if she wanted to go get ready for breakfast herself.

The younger brunette gently shook her head. "No thank you. I don't feel like eating this morning. Do you think I can hang out with you and your brother until my first class starts?"

Nodding, Atsuko told the Noble to wait while she went inside to get something. Within less than five minutes, the older girl came back outside holding three apples in one arm and the other hand in her jacket's pocket. Figuring that Saito was going to be in front of their Master's dorm tower, the girls took their walk in that direction reaching the location pretty quickly.

Saito was squatting in front of a metal basin full of water, scrubbing an article of Louise's clothing on a washboard. Even without looking up to see if it's her, Saito growled at his sister. "Took you long enough, Sis! What took you so –" he looked up and realized that his twin was not alone. "–long? … What did you cause this time?"

Atsuko rolled her eyes at her little brother's poking fun while Katie gave the boy a small smile and a friendly wave. "Oh, hush up, little brother. I didn't cause trouble…"

Saito huffed in relief. "Good. Now come help me with the laundry. I already got through, I think half, of it–"

"Although I might have stalled Miss Katie's trouble for maybe a day or so."

The younger twin practically slipped his hands into the soapy water. "You did WHAT!? And you call me a trouble-maker!"

"Whatever. Here," the older brunette tossed an apple to Saito, with him juggling the red fruit in panic before catching it in his soapy hands. "Eat it before the Shrimp calls for us." She then turns to the violet-eyed girl still standing behind her and handed her the second apple. "Put something in your stomach before you head off to class."

With the twins' apples' in their respective pockets, the older sister also squatted down in front of the washing basin as Saito handed her a second washboard, Katie sitting on the staircase beside them. "So, how's the laundry so far?"

The dark-haired twin continued washing the clothing article from before as he answered, bobbing his head in the direction of a smaller pile. "I'll be finished with the majority of the clothes once I get through this shirt and her last pair of stockings. I tried washing her underwear, but, damn, those things are so needlessly lacy that they're so hard to wash! So, I was thinking that maybe you could –?"

"Wash them for you?" Atsuko finished, raising a brow as she held a light pink pair, inspecting the amount of lace it had before preparing them on the washboard. "Yeah, sure. I'll teach you later how to wash them properly."

"Sure. Did Mom teach you that?"

 _Yes._

"No. Big Sis did."

Saito stopped his washing motion, glancing up at Atsuko then continued. "Oh."

Katie raised a brow at the relatively short exchange between the siblings, her interests piqued at how their conversation ended rather quickly at the mention of their older sister. _'I wonder what happened?'_

However, instead of asking that, Katie went with something else to break the silence. "Um, Miss Atsuko? You haven't met any of the professors or gone to any of Miss Valliere's classes, right?"

The caramel brunette looked up at the younger brunette inquisitively, pausing in her task before slowly continuing. "Mm…no – I mean, most of my stay here was just me getting into a minor argument with the Lil' Lady about where we really came from, tripping over some of Guiche's magical vines, getting into a fight with him the next day, and then falling into a small time coma out of fatigue and a minor blood loss…resulting in Saito waking up yesterday morning-to-noon and me waking up same day during the early to late-ish evening hours. So, no, I haven't."

Atsuko then turned to Saito. "And since Saito woke up earlier than me, he was the one to accompany the Lil' Lady to the rest of her classes of that day."

The younger twin then spoke up. "But I don't think I mentioned anything important or worthwhile about those classes. Did I, Sis?"

The older brunette shook her head in confirmation.

"Okay but, then how did you know to call Professor Colbert by name?"

"Huh?" Atsuko looked up the young Noble in bafflement. "Uh, I – I didn't. Wait! Somebody actually has "Colbert" as part of their name?! I mean, I knew there are professors here, but I just picked that name outta nowhere."

Katie raised a brow in slight skepticism as her violet eyes twinkled with a bemused light. "Really?"

Saito laughed as he answered in his twin's place. "Atsuko has those rare naming times! She'll say or call out the name of someone who works or studies at some place or building and won't realize that there is someone named as such until the person comes up to her. The name is usually something rare, unusual, abnormal, or just plain ol' weird." He then giggled as he remembered something hilarious. "Hell! There was this one time when we got lost at this huge plaza and we were resting on this hidden staircase, completely dead on our feet, when outta nowhere Atsuko stands up, runs to the railing behind us and yells at the top of her lungs _"Miss Chlamydia!"._ She then comes back, sits down beside me, still facing the railing and from where we sat, we literally see peoples' heads turning with one lady, from across the plaza court, answering back!"

"That did NOT happen, Saito!"

Saito nodded. "Yes, it did!"

Atsuko shook her head. "No, it didn't!

"Um…" Katie waved her hand to get the twins' attention, confusion written on her face. "What's wrong with the name ''Chlamydia"? It's actually quite a nice name.''

Silence screeched with embarrassment over the twins, Saito having a look of awkward fear as he looked at his older twin while Atsuko gave him a withering, mortified glare as they both realized the same thought: _'Oh my god… Katie's/ Miss Ortega's can't be an Innocent Cinnamon Bun… right?'_

Within the awkward silence that hung over the three teens, a group of rather other-worldly Familiars of the second-year students went past them as they made their own respective noises. For Atsuko, another questioning thought rang in her head. _'I wonder if we'll ever be able to get back…'_

Before Katie could ask the question again, the twins' safe-bell came in the form of future misery. Said misery took on the form-slash-action of their ears being pulled by their Master, having somehow snuck up behind them. "How much longer are you two going to be talking and doing laundry, instead of escorting me to class?! You guys are really useless!"

The pain from the ear-pulling caused both twins to fling their arms about as they whimpered and whined. Rubbing the stinging irritation away from her hearing-appendage after being released, Atsuko made a face at Louise as she waved her rune-hand in Katie's direction. "What about Miss Ortega?! Are we going to leave her to go to class alone?"

The younger Noble simply continued to sit on the stairsteps, with her chin held in her hand, looking amongst the twins with a look mixed between befuddlement from her previous question and amusement at what was happening before her. Louise frowned lightly, thinking that Atsuko was hinting to something. But before the pinkette could question what she meant, the junior brunette spoke up with a small closed-eyed smile as she stood, walking down onto the grass. "Don't worry, Miss Hiraga! I'll be fine on my own. It isn't anything I'm not used to."

Katie waved her good-day to the trio and thanked Atsuko for the apple then walked off in the direction of her first class. This left both Louise and Saito confused while Atsuko had a small frown out of concern. The pinkette then turned to her Twin Familiars and gave her orders rather snappily once the Ortega girl was out of view. "Now, when the laundry is hung up, come to the classroom immediately! Got that?!"

Kirche with her Familiar Flame and Tabitha had appeared at the entrance of their dorm tower at the top of the steps when the twins gave their reluctant answer. The bluenette continued to walk on, reading, while Kirche look down at the trio before giving a grin of desire.

 _ **MAGICAL FORWARD/SKIP**_

 **Atsuko's P.O.V.**

"Fire, Water, Earth, and Air Magic create a different, stronger effect by combining the elements together."

Right now, the three of us morons are sitting in Louise's first class of the day, a class about transmutation, I think. Even though we were sitting rather huddled in a two-student desk, Saito and Louise paid as much attention to what the professor's lecture as they possibly could in our squished space. The professor was a rather plump, motherly woman, who went by the title and name of Professor Chevreuse, was within her late forties to early fifties with cool, yet kind grey-blue eyes and a patient smile to match. Practically a saint's smile if you ask me. She had a good part of her brown auburn hair hidden within her large purple hat, wore a dark dress, and had a purple cape clinging to her shoulders.

Probably wondering what I'm doing, right? I mean, I had already said what Saito and the Pink Shrimp were doing, so what about me?

Well, I'm actually taking a cat-nap, resting my head, eyes closed, on our desk in front of the professor, not really caring to try to pay attention. I had reasoned that since Saito and I were not really students attending the Academy, then there was no real reason to participate in the lessons, much less going to it. Louise then told me that she didn't care if I did listen in class either, as long as I (and by extension, Saito) stayed by her side as her Familiars, unless I wanted more chores to be added to my own list. Giving up, I agreed to go, only as long as I got to sleep in the classes.

So, now I was napping, trying to ignore the voices from both teacher and students. Emphasis on trying, as it was rather fucking hard to do so, what with how the lady was raising her voice for the students in the back to hear, meaning that it was more than loud for my ears. Same could be said about the students who answered the professor's questions: _L-O-U-D_. Necessary? Yes, most certainly. But loud nonetheless.

And I really don't like loud, especially when I'm trying to nap! Unless you want me to retaliate with life-shortening pranks, then you better pray you know how to bring your voice down and that I don't find you.

"Furthermore, the level of mages is determined by how many elements we can combine." The teacher continued apparently before asking a question to the students. "What are those levels?"

Someone from the desk behind us stood up and answer – How I know? Well, my eyes are closed but my ears aren't. And what I heard are clothes ruffling as if someone was standing up. Now, shut up! – Anyway, the person stood and answered.

"Two elements combined form a Line, three elements form a Triangle, and four elements form a Square."

Oh! That voice belongs that blondie with the curl-drill things, Guiche's ex, right? What's her name again? I know her name sounded French, but I can't remember.

Professor Chevreuse praise the blondie as she sat down. Saito was probably trying to get a panty shot of the girl, 'cause I'm sure that made the Lil' Lady kick my twin in the gut, making Saito and his chair bump into me. Which in turn made me raise my head and glare at the two. The lady continued as if she saw nothing.

"I believe most of you can only deal with one element at a time." The professor was interrupted by that Kirche girl, as she stood up and spoke, making us turn to look at her. "Mrs. Chevreuse, I hate to say this, but a student can't even use one element, with a zero-percentage rate of magical success, is among us."

And right as she said that, everyone in the classroom directed their gaze at Louise. Saito, being the clueless puppy that he is, looked all around that students waiting for an explanation while I simply raised a brow in the shrimp's direction. True, I was slightly confused but I also had a small hunch in regard to that comment that was obviously about my 'Master'. I then see Saito's lightbulb turn on, him finally understanding.

The classes for that day had ended, the students returning to the dorms after supper with their bellies full. Well, all except one and that was Saito. During the day, Saito had apparently sung the same song as yesterday that pissed off the Lil' Lady, resulting in her taking away a meal per 'zero' he said, again. I don't even remember how many he said, but I know that his lunch and supper meals of the day were not eaten. It's sad how he doesn't remember consequences.

' _Goddamn it, Saito.'_

Right now, I'm helping Louise get changed into her pink nightgown, with half a mind to listen to their interaction. My twin's stomach growled louder than a bear's roar as he collapsed on the edge of the room's table, whining out of hunger. "Well…"

The Shrimp shot him down. "Impossible."

' _He hasn't said anything yet.'_

They continued on with whatever it was, even after the light was extinguished. I was sitting on my pile, nodding off when Louise gave in rather loudly and forgave Saito…again. And again, right when I was about to finally pass out, Saito fucked up…again.

Louise kicked him out to the hall for the night again and would have the same to me if I hadn't pointed something out. "Oh no, you don't, Lil' Lady! Yesterday, you kicked me out with him because I encouraged him to do that, not stop him from pestering you. I get that. But this time, even though I didn't stop him, I didn't encourage him either. This time, he pulled that stunt all over again on his own accord with no assistance from me. And he knows this." I pointed a finger at her with half-lidded eyes. "You and I both know that it is far too late for you to even _try_ to force me out there with him again. So, get this over with, and just leave me be."

Begrudgingly, she did and left Saito outside. Louise had then turned the light on the wall next to her bed and was reading a book on said bed while I laid on my bedding resting with my arms folded behind my head. Sometime later, there was a knock at the door, startling me quite a bit. I look up at the Shrimp, not entirely sure what she would want me to do.

Not even glancing my way, she gives an order. "Go see who it is, Cat."

With a twitching brow, I get up, grumbling about how that wasn't my name as I went to the door. "Yes? Who is it?"

" _Miss Valliere? It's me, Katie"_

' _Wait, what?'_ I look back at Louise. "It's Miss Ortega, Lil' Lady."

Louise got up and placed her book on the table, before putting on a light shawl. "Let her in."

Nodding, I opened the door, giving a small smile to the younger girl as she entered then glanced out into the hall. And I saw that Saito was. Not. There… Quickly, I closed the door and turn to the other girls. I already had an idea as to where he had gone, and if he and I were truly similar to a dog and a cat respectively, then that twin of mine had gone to the kitchen to eat scraps and leftovers. The junior and the freshman had already begun their chat, sitting at the table. I went to stand behind Louise, as I was taught by my family's business.

"Would you like some tea, Miss Ortega?"

She shook her head. "No thank you. That won't be necessary."

The pinkette asked again to reaffirm so. "Are you sure? It wouldn't be no trouble."

' _Not for you, it isn't.'_

Again, the younger girl shook her head in affirmation. "It is quite alright. I merely came here for two things." I had raised a brow and I could only assume that Louise did too.

"And what would those be?"

Katie smiled tiredly as she clasped her hands over the table. "Well, one is so that I could retrieve the ointment that I had left here by accident the other day. I did not remember about it until just a moment ago, considering how busy today was for me."

When she said that, I had a more than uneasy feeling strike me as my mind went to that group of girls from earlier. I was barely able to stop my growl –Yes, I growl. You can even ask Saito if it's true. – from coming out when the violet eyed Noble continued. "And the second reason was that, well, I was hoping to check in on your Familiars recovery. I had initially intended on checking in on them within the week, however I'm going to be busy with a project a teacher of mine had suddenly dropped on my class. So, I wouldn't be able to survey their recovery until the week after."

Louise became silent as Katie quickly questioned on her behalf. "That is, if you do not mind."

As the little blue-blood shrimp silently contemplated, I felt my stomach get heavy, kinda like there was an adult-fist-sized rock sitting in that fleshy organ. I don't really get why I was feeling that. It didn't feel like Guilt. I know what that feels like. Not Pity, or Self-Pity. I had long since abolished that sense. It wasn't Anger. Nor Fear. Not a strong sense of Confusion. Or even Sadness.

It was… Disappointment… a _stranger_ kind of Disappointment. One that I wasn't accustomed to, nor did I fully recognize it as my own. And it confuses me.

Finally, Louise nodded at the end of her silence. "Very well." She then turns to me in her seat. "In regard to Miss Ortega's family ointment, I placed it in the top left-most of the dressing-drawer for safe keeping. It's a small, dark-blue tub. Go get it."

Nodding, I went to the drawer to get the tub as she added to the order. "Oh, and call your brother back in for the checkup."

I stilled with the ointment in hand, gulping dryly as I start thinking if it would be a good idea to snitch on the idiot or completely risk eventual explosion spells on me, as in being turned into borderline smithereens. I was going to go with the former, but Katie beat me to it.

"Um, Miss Valliere? Was your other Familiar supposed to be outside in the hallway?"

"Yes. Why?" I slowly walked over to Katie, careful to not look at the small, pink Timebomb as I could feel her glare holes in the back of my head.

"Well, he's not there." I gave the freshman the tub, flinching in fear for my brother as I hear the Shrimp's chair loudly scrape against the floor in rush. Katie continued with a fake sweet tone as she tossed the 'hot potato' my way. "I'm sure Miss Hiraga has an idea where he's gone."

Sending the younger brunette a betrayed look, I felt a hot, threatening 'darkness' emanate from the small girl behind me as I imagined her with pink hissing snakes for hair, two protruding fangs, sharp-stone-cursing eyes, and a split snake tongue that waved as she growled out her interrogating question toward me.

" _Where_ is he, Cat?!"

I desperately tried not to squeak – and mind you, I have rarely, rarely, squeaked in my life – as I quickly turned around, giving her the answer at a rapid pace with an oddly placed deadpanned look. "He-probably-went-to-the-kitchen-to-get-something-to-eat-!-Please-don't-hurt-us-!"

Louise looked like she was going to bust a vein, making me slink behind the sitting freshman, me not wanting to be within the blast range. Instead, she pinched the bridge of her nose with a frown, the junior Noble slowly released a heavy sigh before walking to the door. Once she went past us, I gave her a confused look.

"Um, Lil' Lady? Where are you going?"

Opening the door, she snapped back at me. "I'm going to look for your brother! You and I both know that he is not going to stay in one place for long. You stay here with Miss Ortega and let her check on your recovery." Then turns to Katie. "Miss Ortega, please begin your procedure and if you need any fresh bandages, there should be some rolls left in the top drawer of my nightstand. I'll return with the Dog as soon as possible."

Blinking, I looked at the door that just closed behind the little shrimp feeling somewhat stumped then I looked up at Katie, who looked down at me since I was still crouching, and I could tell that she felt just as stumped as me. Katie gave me an unsteady smile. "Take a seat?"

 _ **MAGICAL FORWARD/SKIP**_

Having already taken my seat in front of Katie, after having gone for the extra bandages, I had begun (and continued) sending a small glare at the violet-eyed girl as she checked the gashes on my hands with an attentive look, prodding tenderly for any soreness. She began to crack a small smile.

"Yes? What's the matter, Miss Hiraga?"

I continued my rather petty glare with a what I know was a pout out of feigned hurt. "You tossed me under the bus."

She looks up, a brow raised in confusion. "What?"

Oh, right…buses don't exist here. What passes for a bus? Horse? Carriage? Wagon? "I mean… you tossed me under the wagon back there with Louise!" I tried again to clarify. "You know, about Saito, my brother."

Understanding, Katie gave me a very, very self-satisfied, mischievous little grin. "Oh, that. I may have tossed under that particular wagon, but at least you're not hurt, right?"

My brow and the corner of my lips twitched. _'This little…cunning…girl…'_

With a smile of fake innocence, Katie began putting on a light coating of her ointment on the hands gashes before wrapping them up in fresh bandages. "Besides, we both have questions for each other. I am also certain that there are some questions that you probably don't want to answer in front of both your Master, Miss Louise Valliere, and your twin brother, Mister Saito Hiraga. Right?"

I gave her a rather sarcastic smile before removing my shirt upon her quiet instructions to check on the last wound. "Yeah. You're right about that. So, which one of us goes first– OW! What was _that_ for?!"

She looked up at me with a cute impish smile, her finger no longer pressed against the covered healing wound. "Oh, sorry. That was to check its tenderness. Now," the brunette ready a clean gauze, the impishness waning just a bit. "I believe it's my turn to question you."

I felt irked. Oh, so incredibly irked at how this girl, this Noble, had tricked me out of my first question rather easily. "Alright," I gritted out. "Ask away, Miss Ortega."

"Thank you. As to my first question, it would be," After finishing dressing my last wound with fresh appliance, all of her impishness and mischievousness disappeared from her face, eyes, and body language, replaced entirely with seriousness and concern. She lifted a single finger and pointed at my wrapped abdomen. "When and how did you come across such a wound?" Before I could even open my lips, the violet-eyed girl places the tip of her finger on my lips with a small yet empty smile. "And, please, for the sake of time, do not attempt to dodge the enquiry, or lie to me about it."

With my navy eyes slightly widened, I begun a thought as to how this girl, who had been so sheepish and easygoing earlier that day, could be the same as the one before me now, giving me such a hollow simper. I remained silent before answering. "Normally, you would count that as two questions, but to answer the 'When', about a day or two before Saito and I arrived in this world, I received it while walking home from visiting someone. As to the 'How'…" I stopped and looked to the side, not entirely sure if I should answer that part. In the end, I shrugged. "I guess it would be more appropriate to say that I was ambushed by a rather desperate man with a knife."

Katie paled at how easily I had said that. "Ambushed? Why–?"

I wagged a finger at her with a somewhat playful smile, attempting to be mysterious. "Nope. It's my turn to ask a question." Now that I think about it, we might as well be playing Twenty Questions. With the playfulness wiped from my face; I began. "Regarding what had happened this morning, it is really true about you being a 'bastard'?"

Katie was quiet for but a moment, before speaking with an understanding at my curiosity. "Yes, it's true. I am the bastard daughter of Count Sophronius de la Ortega del Leone and Calanthia Harden, the daughter of a village healer." Looking away from me, she somberly mumbled in a tone so low that I almost missed it. "And if I had been allowed to stay with my mother, I would have been known as 'Katherina Harden'. A name I would much rather have."

From the sound of it, it seems like she and her sire don't really get along. I pushed that thought away for another day. "I see. Okay, your turn."

"Eh? Oh!" Katie looked at me rather surprised at how quickly I pushed passed her answer. "Um, well, back during the fight you and your brother had with Lord Guiche, I had asked about your coat." She nodded to my jacket that lay folded on my hay-pile. "So, I'll ask again: Why is it so important to you?"

Promptly, I answered, wanting to rip it off like a band-aid. "That's because it was the final and last present from our…older sister. Her name was Naomi Hiraga."

I don't know what her reaction was when she heard and connected the dots, but I didn't care as I glanced at the pinkish-brown jersey-like jacket as the sense of fondness for the deceased woman whom I had once considered as family. I was convinced that I didn't care for Katie's reaction.

' _Liar! You do care!'_

I shut my eyes briefly, almost as if trying to shake that 'voice' from my head before I went on to my next question. "Okay, I get that I was in near-comatose the last several days, but I honestly would like to know as to how I ended up in your room?"

"Well…" Katie began as she motioned me to lift my arms a bit. "When you and your brother fainted after that fight, you both had fevers that are considered to be absurdly high for your own well-being. The two of you _were_ being taken care of here in your Master's dorm room, then Mister Saito woke up, but you didn't, and Miss Valliere wanted her bed sheets cleaned. But she also didn't want to just leave you laying on your pile of hay, so I volunteered my bed. We were able to get you to my room with a Floatation spell, and you stayed asleep until that evening." She gave me a small close-eyed, bashful smile. "So, yeah."

I hummed. I had thought it was something like that, but I had only wanted to be sure. Although, I felt like something else happened, but I don't feel like actually asking about that just yet. "Alright, my turn, I guess," I popped my neck out of stiffness a little, before settling with a poker face. "This is question I'm going to ask you has to do with that group of girls from today."

Katie had stiffened once I said that, and I couldn't blame her. Even back in my world, kids born out of wedlock are frown upon. Okay, maybe not as much as back then during stricter times, or even here (speculation on my part), but still not exactly something to be entirely jealous of. I cleared my throat. "Why did have those girls been treating you like that?" I referred to what had happened to earlier that day. "And I don't believe it's something to do with you be a, uh, a bastard."

I had cringed inside when I said that. I never did like that word ' _bastard_ '. I always believed that a child is a child, no matter their parentage, lineage, race, language, religion, etc. It's cruel to label in such a manner

I am speculating that it had begun sometime earlier in the year.

The brunette before me looked down at her lap, wringing her hand nervously with her violet eyes peering at anything but myself. I was about to repeat the question to her, thinking she didn't hear me, but it was cut off by her voice.

"Could…could I not answer this…please?"

This broke my heart, as my eyes widened, and I didn't care to question why. Hearing the shaking in her voice, the tenseness, it was impossible not to feel such a way. The light from the oil lamp on the table next to us flickered, giving warm volume to Katie's saddened form.

I began to wonder in my silence just exactly how much were she and her mother persecuted for her birth. Saito and I never actually experienced any sort of real persecution, just minor teasing here and there that sometimes went too far. When that did happen, I would…uh, um…take _care_ of said problems.

I nodded. "Yes… that's fine." _For now at least._ "You can ask your _last_ question of the night."

Hearing that, Katie seemed to be shocked out of her trauma-like stupor and looked at me with flushed cheeks and what I normally call the ' _Fucking-Excuse-Me?!_ ' light flashing in her doe-like violet eyes. "What?! You can't do that! We didn't specify how many were going to be asked each!"

I shrugged with a very cat like smirk. "Yeah, well, I specified it now. This next question of yours will be tonight's last question for you, and mine will be the last one for me." I peered at cutely, fuming brunette through a single eye, waving one hand. "Now, go on! Ask away, Ms. Ortega."

Much to my amusement, Katie huffed as she crossed her arms, looking away briefly. "Alright, fine," Washing away her childish irritation from herself, the girl before me held an expression of concern and curiosity, but mostly curiosity, as she inquired of me. "What I want to know the most is…why are you so eager to find a way back to your home world? I mean – your twin, Mister Saito Hiraga, also wants to go back, but you seem more… desperate, I suppose."

Her eyes met mine. "So, why?"

Lightly, my face turned to frown. I honestly wasn't sure whether or not to tell her my reason. What I mean is that for all I know she could go running to either the Pink Shrimp or to the academy's headmaster, and I really don't want any hindrance in my search. So I decided to be as vague as possible with my answer.

"Because," I huffed. "I started something and left it unfinished. Saito only wants to go back for the sake of going back and for the sake of our parents."

I began to scratch the back of my head, now realizing how douche that sounded. "I mean, going back home so that your family doesn't worry isn't a bad thing! It's just that…"

I looked away, feeling ashamed all of a sudden. "What I'm going back for could not only decide that condition of us as a family, but of the possible collapse of our family business as well."

The room became silent and heavy with unease – well, more like the uneasiness is for me. The awkward silence was broken with Katie speaking up.

"It seems you carry a burden that you are not sharing with your brother. Must have been hard to have been doing it all by yourself."

I was shocked, most definitely so. Not only over what she said, but more over _how_ she said it. Katie said it without pity, and more with the want to _understand_ my choice in my actions. In truth, I'm not used to having someone, anyone really, _want_ to comprehend my situation nor my choices.

"Y-yes," was all I could stumbling to say, with my mouth opening and closing like a fish. "Yes, it is."

She hummed in thought, her square-cut bangs covering her violet eyes. I cleared my throat and asked her my question and favor that could either sink or swim my search.

"Which is why I am going to ask you this kindness, one that could help me and Saito home."

Katie nodded with all seriousness, signaling me to go on.

"Could you teach me to read and write in the language of this world? Please?"

* * *

 ** _Who though I was dead?! I'm sorry my dear lovelies, but from now on, it's going to be slow sail in the updates department. What with college coming up and learning how to drive and learning how not to be afraid of drive a giant medal tin can the moment I sit in the driver's seat … … But it's whatever, you know?_**

 ** _Remember: COMMENT, FOLLOW, FAVORITE, REVIEW, and NO FLAMES! Thank you!_**


	7. Official Author's Note 1

**The Hiraga Twins: Official Author's Note #1**

Hello~ dear Readers! It's your girl, foxluvur64!

As the heading suggests, this is the first official A/N for this story. I don't usually count the small A/Ns after or before each chapter of a story as "officials", more like "heads-ups" for the reader regarding certain things. These singular notes will appear every now and then simply to notify you of the current situation for the story's progress.

Now, regarding _this_ story's progress for chapter 7… it's getting there… I _can_ tell you guys that it should be finished and posted by the middle of next month - so like - mid-December or so… Sorry.

Also, I'm starting to wonder, and am now presenting this as a question to you; Should I or should I not go back to the chapter that Katie introduced herself in (and any other chapter that mentions her surname) and replace it with her canon Noble family name instead of the one I made up? Please let me know either via comments or private messages.

And _that_ _should be_ _ **it**_! Now, my precious Readers, please remain patient for the next chapter. Thank you very much for the support!

~foxluvur64


	8. Chapter 7 Pt 1 - Weapons and an Answer

**Chapter 7: Weapons and an Answer; Part 1**

 **Previously on The Hiraga Twins…**

 ** _She hummed in thought, her square-cut bangs covering her violet eyes. I cleared my throat and asked her my question and favor that could either sink or swim my search._**

 ** _"Which is why I am going to ask you this kindness, one that could help me and Saito home."_**

 ** _Katie nodded with all seriousness, signaling me to go on._**

 ** _"Could you teach me to read and write in the language of this world? Please?"_**

* * *

General P.O.V.

It was now the next morning, and Atsuko still couldn't stop snickering at her twin's 'impossible' and 'unlucky' luck, as the eldest kindly put it. According to Saito, the reason why he and Louise were late to return to the dorm was because of a small 'kidnapping' on that girl Kirche's part. Apparently, the boy was saved by Louise from whatever sexual harassment the redhead was going to dish out on him. By the time the two had arrived at the dorm room where Atsuko was waiting, Katie had already left to her room, leaving the older brunette to fend for herself against the shouting match between Master and Familiar.

 ** _Flashback to last night_**

 _Atsuko was sitting on the window sill looking out into the star-filled night, admiring the stars and the two moons, when her younger twin Saito came barreling in the room, looking quite terrified. The caramel brunette twin had looked at the boy with an inquisitive stare and was about to ask what the matter was when the pinkette came in, locking the door behind her. All was quiet in the room for moments, with the light of the oil lamp on the table giving a warm hue to the part of the chamber with the door, and the moons sending their light in through the single window to provide a cooler hue to that side of the room._

 _Even in her sleeping gown, Louise was an angry force to be reckoned with, as is evident with her livid shouting._

 _"You're like a dog in heat!"_

 _That, Atsuko knew, was directed at her brother, who frantically bowed in fearful apology, not realizing that their master had walked in the direction of her dressing drawers. "I'm sorry!" When Saito noticed that Louise was no longer in front of him, he turned around to question the item in her hand. "What's that?"_

 _Atsuko's eyes widened in bafflement as it struck her. '_ Oh, shit. That's a riding crop! _'_

 _As the brunette quickly slipped down from the window sill, the Noble girl answered her younger Familiar. "This is a whip for horseback riding."_

 _The boy sweat dropped, not taking the younger girl seriously. "A whip?"_

 _Atsuko knew Saito wasn't seeing this as a threat and immediately called out to him. "Saito! I don't know what it is you did to get her mad, and I don't care! But whatever it was, just hurry up and get on your knees and beg for her forgiveness!"_

 _Saito was about to question what she meant by that when Louise directed that crop's tip towards Atsuko, making her stumble back a bit. "Silence! And stand down! Unless you wish to get punished with your brother as well, even if you did not commit the same misbehavior as him!"_

 _The younger brunet twin cried out in indignation while Atsuko move a full meter back. It wasn't out of fear of the pinkette, but rather the adamant dislike of pain. Atsuko had once felt the sharp, almost bruising, ache from a riding crop before, some years ago. Even if the misdirection of that swing was on accident, the Hiraga girl had since then learned to keep whips at arm's length._

 _With the eldest twin silent, Louise turned back to Saito with a look of absolute disgust, her voice with the same tone if not angrier. "It was wrong of me to treat you like a human."_

 _Saito would have said something, had it not been for the stern glare that his sister was sending him from across the room._

 _"Of all the girls, you wag your tail towards that Zerbst…" the girl shook with irritation, gripping the crop strongly before raising it and bring the tip down to the floor with such force, it providing a sharp crack. "Dog!"_

 _The boy yelped as he stepped back. "Milady, please calm down."_

 _"I was too kind," she said, bring the crop up and down on her palm. "If you're a s-stray dog, and your sister a stray cat, I should treat you two as such." Louise then began to walk toward the boy with determination as the brunet stepped back until his back was against the door. He held his hands up in surrender as Atsuko moved forward. "Wait, let's calm down and talk about it."_

 _She then brought down the pain with rival anger as the Hiraga boy loudly whimpered out his pain, his sister begging her to stop as well._

 _"Ow! Seriously, stop! Please!"_

 _"Stop it, Lil' Lady!" Atsuko tries to grab Louise's crop arm but moved away when the whip nearly hit her. "Eep! Lady Louise, that's enough!"_

 _"What's so good about that woman?!"_

 _That wasn't exactly something Atsuko expected to hear from Louise. 'Is the shrimp the insecure type?' Atsuko wondered, having backed off when Saito was about to grab hold of the pinkette's wrists, the girl demanding that he let go. '_ That could mean that all of her brashness is just a front… _'_

 _Now she just prays that he doesn't say anything stupid._

 _But, goodness, was she wrong! The next thing Saito said was him questioning her whether or not she felt jealousy at the fact that he had 'snuck' into Kirche's bedroom, and not into Louise's bed. Which ended up with the small pinkette kneeing the boy in the special place, Atsuko reflexively winching at her brother's pain. This then led to the pinkette's foot stepping on the boy's head with the older brunette trying to get the younger girl to calm down just enough to have her remove her foot. Saito had proceeded to adamantly suggest that it was a misunderstanding on his part._

 _"I don't care who you date, but she alone I forbid." At this point, Atsuko had at the very least taken the crop from her Master's hand. "Kirche's family, the Zerbsts, and my family, the Vallieres, have long been archrivals!"_

 _Atsuko slowly began to question the mentality of those who consider one or more as their rival(s). Stupid, really, in her opinion. The Valliere girl went on to say that it would be considered as a disgrace to her family if a single simple item, be it a single thread or a simple dog, were to fall into the hands of a Zerbst, 'woman' as Louise put it._

 _After that rather livid family-rivalry explanation, Louise then allowed Saito to explain his side of the story, a bit late in the twins' opinion. And apparently the reason why Saito had popped up in Kirche's dorm room was because that bombshell redhead had ordered her Familiar salamander, Flame, to 'retrieve' the brunet on his way back to Louise's room._

 _"How pathetic. You're a swordsman, aren't you?"_

 _"Who is? Me?" Saito had questioned back. "No, not really. Up until now, I've been training with wooden replicas, and even then, I had barely begun learning our family's art. The other day was the first time I've held a real sword, right, Atsuko?" He then held his chin in thought. "Although, I think the mark on my hand seemed to have made my body move in a more fluid, instinctual motion."_

 _The caramel brunette nodded. Louise looked surprised then a bit skeptical. "You're kidding me, right? Define 'barely begun'- I mean, you were so adept when you and your sister were fighting Guiche."_

 _"What Saito meant by 'barely begun' is literally just that." Atsuko started, sitting against the wall with her arms crossed. "Other than the minor lessons our older sister gave us as small children, Saito had only started his train in our family's swordsmanship a little less than a month ago. Up until then, he hadn't really thought about taking our family business seriously."_

 _'_ And probably still doesn't… _'_

 _Saito nodded. "That's right. Atsuko, on the other hand, had already gone to most of the hand-to-hand combat lessons our family gives out at the main compound. In fact, if Atsuko had gone to the lessons everyday then she would have been the top student at the dojo!"_

 _Louise raised her brow in disbelief while Atsuko merely shook her head at her brother's exaggeration, before clarifying for the small pinkette. "That would only be in hand-to-hand combat, Lil' Lady, not with the bo staff as you had witnessed in the fight. And even then, it would be an exaggeration on Saito's part."_

 _"You give yourself too little credit, Sis! Besides if it weren't for the Valkyrie's sword— oh! Hold up!" Saito exclaimed, remembering something. "Atsuko, didn't you tell me and the other kitchen staff that during the fight - you remember when Sis had stopped that Valkyrie's sword in mid-swing with just her two hands, in a sort of clapping motion?" The pinkette nodded, wondering where this was going. "Well, she told us that when she did that, she started to remember a memory, and it was that memory that helped her finish off that Valkyrie!"_

 _Atsuko's brow ticked. "I wouldn't say it 'help' per say. It was more like it was reminding me why it's never a good idea to stop a moving blade like that." She held up her hands as evidence. "Luckily, these small gashes were the only consequence I received from that."_

 _Not being as dubious as previously, Louise rested against the table as she hummed before giving her thoughts on such a matter. "Sometimes Familiars can yield special powers once contracted. For instance, a black cat Familiar can learn to speak."_

 _"I'm not a cat! That's in Atsuko's job description!"_

 _The caramel brunette hissed at her brother. "No, it isn't, you dumb mutt of a brother!"_

 _"Yes, it is!" He barked, he then turned back to their charge. "Anyway, you can't be a swordsman if you're unarmed!"_

 _Still not looking at the two, Louise mused. "You're right. We'll have to do something about that, as well as your sister's weapon of choice - or rather, the lack thereof. And tomorrow the day of the week is Void-day…"_

 _The twins tilted their heads to the side simultaneously. "How's that?"_

 _The pinkette Noble then snapped at the two, telling them to shut up and to get to sleep since they'll be waking up early in the morning. Just as the twins were about to leave the room with their respective pile of bale (Atsuko was only going along since Saito had begged her earlier) when Louise had called out to them, asking where they were going. Having told her that they were going to sleep out in the hallway, the Noble girl responded by saying that it was alright for them to sleep in the room instead._

 _"You'll be in trouble if Kirche attacks you again."_

 _Atsuko had already dropped her armful of hay back into its original pile with drowsiness already setting in, making her nod off a little as she settled the pile. As she was busy with sluggishly shrugging her jacket back on to ward off the night's cold, Atsuko didn't realize that Saito had said a rather ill-mannered joke which ended with him getting whipped again by Louise's whip._

 _The older twin simply curled up in a ball as sleep took her, much like the feline that she says she's not, not paying heed to her twin's goofy plead for help._

 ** _Present_**

"Hey, Cat! I figured Saito doesn't know how to ride a horse, but what about you? Do you know?"

"Hm?" Atsuko looked back up at her Master, who walked in front of her with Saito alongside her and shook her head. "Oh! No. Not at all. The city life Saito and I are used to didn't really - or rather, it was no longer required for people to learn equestrian skills. It would only be so if someone was into a sort of competitive sport that needed the horse to be the center of attention in terms of speed, strength, endurance, or beauty contests."

"Or if a ranch family, or ranch business in general," Saito cuts in quite timely. "Deals with horse constantly, whether to break them in, or as an easier way to move across the fields."

Louise hummed as she led the twins to the stables. "Well then since today we'll be going to the market, we will have to go on horseback."

Atsuko raised a single brow. "Is that necessary? Can't we use a wagon?"

The petite pinkette shook her head. "No. The academy will only issue the wagon to the students if they're a group of five or more, unless it's a kitchen staff member sent on an errand to buy supplies."

Calling for the stable-boy, Louise requested for three horses when the eldest twin interrupted. "Um, actually could you bring out only two horses? Saito can ride with the Lil' Lady since he needs to feel out the motions the first time so that he can do it properly the next." The youngest twin nodded, saying a 'Yep' as his confirmation. "For me, if you could just quickly tell me the basics then I should be able to ride by myself." The caramel brunette then turned to Louise. "That fine with you?"

The pinkette nodded. "Yes, that's fine. Just get on with it. At this rate, we'll be behind schedule."

Getting the okay from the twins' Master, the stable-boy proceeded to explain proper procedures and quick riding etiquette while teaching her how to prepare and saddle the two horses. The stable boy, no older than the twins, clarified the two types of horse the three teens will be riding. The horse for the youngest twin and the pinkette was a mature chestnut courser mare with a mild, good-natured temper. While Atsuko's horse was a two year old buckskin stallion, who, according to the stable hand, has a stubborn streak _'worse than the spoilest three-year-old Noble brat born of a sour cunt'_. But other than that, the young buck was actually quite gentle.

After balking at the crude wording the stableboy used to describe the horse, Louise quickly shooed the teen away after he led the long-legged creatures out the stalls, saying that that was enough and prompted the twins to mount the horses. The older caramel brunette was able to ascend the saddle of her stallion after one or two tries, but Saito needed help considering the amount of times he slipped and landed on his backside. Now with Louise mounted on the mare, she helped the young twin to take his spot behind her.

Before the three could set off, a certain lavender-haired valet called out to the eldest as walked up some feet to the side of Atsuko and her stallion. Jesse gave off a bored vibe while his ruffled clothes and the thin shine of sweat on his forehead showed that he was already being roughly worked. With his country drawl, the young man spoke just loud enough for only the brunette could hear, seeing as the other twin and their Master were only a few meters away. "I got a message fer ya, Voice. From the lil' violet-eyed Noble girl ya seem to be rather sweet on."

Although irked, the caramel was careful to not show how flushed she got at that, but did not ignore the jab as she knew she should have. "Mister Jesse, while I do not agree with that little 'sweet' teasing regarding Miss Ortega and I, it would be in both of our interests that you just hurry up and tell me the message before the Shrimp over there blows a gasket."

Jesse raised a single brow at Atsuko's euphemism, but pushed it to the side, deeming it better to get the errand over with. "The lil' Miss Katie Ortega wants you to meet her in the Academy's library after ya get back from town. That cool with ya?"

The caramel was responding to the other two teens who were telling her to hurry then turned back to the country boy, nodding. "Yes. Thank you."

With that the older boy left. When the twins and their Master went on their way, they had begun from a trot to a canter, all was well until the two main riders' pushed their respective horses into a gallop. Once that happened, Saito, who was not holding on properly before, was now flailing his arms about as the mare whinied.

"I'm going to fall!"

"Hold on tight! Hey, wait! What are you holding on to?!"

From where Atsuko was galloping ahead of the other two, the brunette looked over her shoulder and struggled in not laughing as she was scared of biting her tongue off. Saito, much to Louise's shameful dismay, was unintentionally groping their Master's _flat_ chest area.

* * *

The ride into town was neither long, nor was it short. Nonetheless, it did do quite a number on the inexperienced twins' backside, although Atsuko would never admit it. After tying their horses' reins to a post, the three teens began their walk down the bustling streets with the twins practically gawking at the different stands and looking in through the store windows with curiosity. While Saito and their charge were looking one way, the caramel brunette twin was looking the other and in her looking about the eldest noticed a rather large architecture far in the distance. Atsuko put two and two together and started to lightly smack her twin's shoulder repeatedly with a look of absolute awe on her face, while trying to keep her voice at normality.

"Saito, Saito, Saito, Saito, Saito! Look! You can see the castle even from here~!"

Atsuko had not realized that she was beginning to smack Saito harder as she continued to look at the castle. Saito, on the other hand, noticed quite quickly and began to wince as he tried to catch his sister's rapid hand by the wrist to stop the hitting. Despite the sharp stinging, the younger twin could only chuckle at the older twin's almost uncharacteristic child-like awe. "Yeah, yeah, I see it, Atsuko! It's awesome, right?"

The caramel brunette nodded, Saito not noticing her eyes flashed with a spark of sorts. "I wonder what sort of parkour tricks I could do off those towers and walls?"

The younger twin then whipped his head to look back at his sister again, blood drained from his face completely. "Wha—?!"

Before the boy could finish what he was going to say, Louise called to them from some short ways away up the street. "Hey, you two! Stay close. Bourdonne Street is Tristian's largest and busiest street."

The twins slightly ignored their charge as they continued behind her, but paid attention to the stalls full of trinkets and other strange knick-knacks. Saito commented on the items as Atsuko poked at a strange furry blob with a kitten's curiosity. "They sell interesting stuff~"

"Come on! Don't get sidetracked!" Louise called out to them once again with more annoyance. "Thieves and pickpockets are common too, so keep an eye on your wallets!"

Atsuko stopped poking the tiny furry blob and looked back up at the small pinkette with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Wait. We get to spend the money you gave us as we see fit?"

Louise rolled her eyes as she placed her fists on her hips. "Yes. As long as you don't lose your wallet or spend it on anything stupid. Now come along already."

Even though the twins were still glancing around, they continued to follow their Noble mage towards their destination. Atsuko expertly dodged the other people walking from store to store, stall to stall, while Saito was apologizing left and right every now and then when he bumped into others. The boy then simply decided to pay attention to the front as he walked. The unusual shop signs caught his eye as he walked.

"There sure are a lot of signs…"

The older twin nodded while Louise gave a quick explanation. "It's because there are many commoners who can't read."

Atsuko scoffed. "Are you kidding? I can't even tell what kind of shop it is even by looking at the signs!"

Louise remained quiet as she turned a corner, beginning to lead the twins through an alleyway. While Saito simply followed their charge, Atsuko stopped short.

By nature, Atsuko was never hesitant, simply cautious. Or, at least, that's what she told herself and others. However, when the brunette twin noticed the alley that her twin and their charge had stepped into, Atsuko couldn't stop the overly familiar sense of dread from washing over her. Sure, it was a brief moment, but that was all she needed to step one foot away.

"U-uh, you know what guys? I'm j-just gonna wait over here… out here."

Louise stopped in her steps briefly, making Saito nearly bump into her. Both looked back at the caramel brunette, who was now trying not to appear as if she wasn't going to bolt the moment she got the okay. Saito didn't seem to remember what was his sister's reason for wanting to ditch and was about to just tell their charge that it should be alright for her to go, when the pinkette spoke.

"Why?"

"Well, uh, you are only going to buy Saito his sword and, to be honest, I'm not really interested in owning a sword as my main weapon. A-and, um, I really want to go check the town out." Louise continued to say nothing as she watched her older Familiar with focused eyes. Despite the fact that she only knew the twins for only a few days (relatively), Louise could already tell that Atsuko was more than likely to cover up her feelings and thoughts much more precisely than her younger twin brother. But to see the older girl's "mask" chipping so early on in their Master-Familiar relationship is a little concerning. Saito was then beginning to understand what was going on and mentally beat himself for forgetting so easily.

Louise relented. "Fine. Just be sure to stay within a perimeter of two blocks so that we can find you better. Also while you're at it, go look for something that you'd like as a weapon… as long as it's reasonably priced."

Atsuko, along with Saito, sighed in relief before nodding. As the brunette was about to take off, her Master called out to her one last time. "Oh, and Cat, no, Atsuko!" The girl looked back. "Make sure you keep an eye on your wallet."

* * *

Keeping true to the two-block perimeter set by her Master, Atsuko walked about the streets, observing the stalls and viewing through the windows. She was no fool— Okay, she admits it. She can be a bit of a fool, but most certainly not as much as her twin. So the caramel brunette knew that she was not given so much in her wallet. And even if Louise did, Atsuko still wouldn't know how to spend it properly.

She didn't know what the currency was call here; how much a gold coin was valued compared to its silver and bronze/copper counterparts; nor did she know how much she could buy with either one. Until she realized that, aside the stalls that sold vegetables, fruits, and fabrics, some of the other street vendors were either selling sweets, toy-like trinkets, or small handmade jewelry. There was this one stall that sold all sorts of hair accessories, aside from the hair-ribbons, there seemed to be ones made out of painted wood, painted metal, or carved out of ivory or common precious stone.

None of them were Atsuko's style really, but she did acknowledge that they would look quite nice on someone else. The quiet twin was more of a hair-tie kind of gal, she knew that the moment she realized that when her hair was growing longer when she was about five (give or take). It was simple: get a fabric, stretchy band (rubber-bands could work, too, but she didn't like having to untangle her hair from it), or a simple fabric ribbon, gather your hair and tie it in place. Simple as that. There was no real need to get all fancy with techniques, unless it's necessary for an important-slash-fancy occasion.

Still observing the accessories, the teen noticed one particular pin or rather a zan(1). Its design was quite simple and nothing too out of the ordinary. The zan's main body seemed to be carved out of what looked like impure jade that had more of a blue tint to it, the body having something small carved into it. The head of the pin was a five-petal flower, the edges soft and rounded, carved out of what was possibly yellow-ed ivory.

 _'If that was painted a light tint of purple, or carved out of an amethyst, it'd look more like a violet flower.'_

It was a small, simple thought, one Atsuko believed to be true. Then her mind thought about how it'd look on Katie, back at the academy. She thought about how an amethyst-colored violet would make the younger brunette's lavender doe eyes more noticeable but still be their own soft color.

Atsuko nodded to herself. _'Yeah. She'd look nice with that. I could get it for Miss Katie as a thank-you gift, that is, if she agrees to teaching me.'_ She then walked off, eyeing the candy stall one over. _'But it's not like I can actually buy it. The currency here is completely unknown to me. Maybe I'll ask her about that too.'_

For now, the brunette opted to testing out the coins on the candy vendors. From what she could tell, each item had a small wooden sign with certain number of brown (bronze/copper), light grey (silver), or yellow (gold) circles painted on them. For instance, the sugar star-rock candies were two copper and something else that looked like sugared yams seemed to be five copper while the sculpted hard candies with rather pretty designs was one silver. How many pieces the coins would end up getting her was debatable.

At the sugar star-rocks, Atsuko paid the two copper price and received ten pieces wrapped in paper packaging. Paying five copper at the candied yams, the twin got two thick pieces half the size of her fist also wrapped in its packaging. Then the single silver, well, she took her time in choosing her piece when one caught her eye.

"Hey, mister!" She waved the seller over, seeing as his business was running somewhat slow. Walking to her from his side of the stall, the vendor made his inquiry.

"Hello there! How can I help you, miss? Something catching your eye?"

Atsuko nodded. "Yeah, this one." She pointed at a piece, the size of one and a half fists, that was rather unique to her and… familiar. The design wasn't all that basic.

In fact, with the entirety of the piece was all shades and tints of blue with hints of green, it had a white tinted colored body — actually, aside from the main body, everything else was just as slight see-through, with dark green-blue tuft-like swirls here and there mostly at the ankle joints before its paws. It's 'mane' and vast 'tail-fluff' was the same color as the ankle tufts with eyes colored yellow for its whites and red for the irises. Its maw, permanently open, colored white for its fangs and redish-pink for its tongue, nose and the inside of its white ears. Even with its body pierced with a skewer stick, it was positioned with its head turned backwards with its maw opened in a permanent roar while its legs stilled in running movement.

It reminded the Hiraga girl of an old mythological creature, one that she came across reading a book out of boredom some years ago. What she couldn't be reminded of, was the name of said creature, or rather the actual animal the creature was based on.

"Do you know what's the story with this one?"

The thin man nodded. "Aye, but only a bit of it. Me grandpa told me how there was once a large lion-like creature that lived in the snowy mountains just east of here. He told me that his pa had hallucinated seeing it the one time he had gone to those mountains by himself. He then visited one of the villages near the mountain and asked about it."

 _'Lion-like and snowy mountains. Could be a puma, but it doesn't feel like it's clicking…'_

"The village elder told me great-grandpa that the creature of those snowy mountains is considered as a celestial guardian spirit of sorts. No one knows if its real, but the people who live near and around those mountains believe in it for protection and strength. There are also those who believe that this celestial creature can control snow, ice, thunder, and lightning. Since that is the case with them, those villagers pray to it for protection against the cold winter weather and its unsuspected storms."

Atsuko hummed, rubbing her chin. "What was the spirit is called?"

The vendor answered after trying to remember that detail. "I believe me grandpa said the creature is called a 'Snow Lion'."

Then it clicked. _'Snow Lion! That's what it was. If I remember correctly, the Snow Lion is a mythological creature that is mostly known in Tibetan myths, based around the Snow Leopards which live mostly in the Himalayas.'_

"I want the 'snow lion' one. One silver, right?"

The man nodded, but then suggested as he pointed to the brunette's full arm, "How about I hold onto that piece while you go for a bag? I don't think that you be able to hold onto all that when you walk about."

Atsuko looked down at her arm and realized that he was right. It's already getting difficult holding the candy while juggling the wallet and walking. "No, that's alright." The brunette paid the single silver, receiving the sculpted candy piece then fingered for another silver coin from her wallet. "But could you recommend me a good bag stall?"

Seeing the extra coin, the vendor nodded, pointing down the street to his right which was Atsuko's left. "If you keep going four stalls down this street, the fifth one to your right should be selling some bags right now. The prices should be reasonable enough."

The teen nodded walking in said direction as she thumb-flicked the extra silver coin at the man, who caught it. "Okay. Thanks!"

The brunette teen arrived at said stall and bought a dark leather messenger bag for three silvers and one copper. After putting all the candies in the bag over her shoulder, Atsuko continued her walk unto the next street. On that street, Atsuko could see that there were still plenty of knickknack and sweets vendors and only a few knife and hatchet stalls were beginning to pop up here and there. None of the displayed weapons were to the caramel brunette's taste— actually, it wasn't that they weren't to her taste, it was more like Atsuko has always liked the idea that if a person is able to make their own weapon, then that would be their own.

"Excuse me," Atsuko caught the attention of passersby, only to realize that it was that strawberry-blonde from the group of girls that were bullying Katie the other day. "Oh, it's you—"

Era, as was the strawberry-blonde's name, wore her academy's uniform with her own Junior year black cloak. From beneath the cloak, Atsuko could see that she had her own brown bag and rationalized that the Noble girl was shopping. The junior Mage looked back at the other teen incredulously, with a single brow raised. "Sorry, do I know you?"

"No, you don't," Atsuko wasn't lying, but she knew the strawberry-blonde in a sense. "But I was wondering if you know any blacksmiths here?"

Era hummed. "Well, if you want a _good_ blacksmith, then I don't know one. But I do know a great blacksmith. She lives on the edge of the town towards the west, some ways away from the Tristain Academy. It's about some few hours if you go by horseback or by wagon. A day and a half if you go on foot. The place is called Beyond the Ridge and it's a bit pricey."

Atsuko rubbed the spot just below her bottom lip, thinking. She could most certainly get there, but that's not the question. The gist is whether or not she could pay. "Just how pricey are we talking about here?"

"What could be the equivalent to an arm and a leg." Atsuko nearly fell flat on her ass when she heard. " _But_ the blacksmith _might_ lower the price a peg or two if you work for her."

"Work for her?" Atsuko raised a brow at Era. "What do you mean? Surely this blacksmith has her own employees, family or otherwise?"

Era shook her head. "Not really. It's more like she not only has high standards for her employees but is also rather hard on them."

 _'More like she doesn't take any sort of nonsense from them or from anyone.'_

"If you don't mind me asking," Era began her inquiry. "Why are you looking to a blacksmith? Surely you can simply buy a weapon at the local armories? Or maybe even the ones sold at these local vendors?"

"Oh, well, recently I was brought under employment as a bodyguard of sorts." Atsuko wasn't necessarily lying, simply bending the truth a bit. The way she saw it, instead of outright viewing her position beneath Louise as a while I can appreciate the already crafted ones, I can't help but be attracted to the idea of the saying my family would say: "Weapons already crafted will have a Shared Soul with the blacksmith and Shared Blood with the wielder only after first blood is spilt. But, personally crafted weapons will have both Shared Soul and Shared Blood with the crafter and wielder.""

The strawberry-blonde raised a brow. "There is absolutely no way that something _that_ long is what your family would have as a saying."

Atsuko merely shook her head and shrugged. She wasn't lying, nor was she exaggerate about the saying. How she remembered that entire thing, she had absolutely no idea. Era chuckled then her hazel eyes seemed to have darkened a slight bit as she started to walk past Atsuko.

"Well, then do take care. And be sure to keep a better eye on your little bunny. Lest you want her to get hurt?"

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** ** _Hello to my precious readers! I'm not dead. And like I promised, a chapter in December! Consider it your early present for Christmas, Hannaka, Quanza, and any other holiday that happens in this particular Winter month. Here's a heads up: the next chapter is gonna pop up closer to the beginning to middle of next month... probably. Point is, it's gonna be a while. But it will be longer than the 12 to 13 page limit I normally set for myself._** ** _Anyway, here's the Word of the Day!_** ** _Zan(1): A zan is a type of hair pin used during the earlier dynasties of the Chinese Empire, mostly used by noble women. The zan would normally be carved out of either bone-ivory, jade, wood or tortoise shell._** ** _Thank you for reading!_** ** _~foxluvur64_**


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